The Dutch research programme, NESTOR, is developing a prosthesis for the blind that makes contours of objects visible in the form of dots. ‘In this way we are replacing the eyes with a camera.’
A consortium of scientists from Amsterdam, Nijmegen, Maastricht and Eindhoven, has developed an app for a pair of virtual-reality goggles, that makes the contours of people or objects visible by means of dots. This simulates the vision that blind people could stand to gain in the future, with the help of a neuroprosthesis.
Jaap de Ruyter van Steveninck is a PhD student at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior at Radboud Univesity and is investigating how the prosthesis can help blind people. ‘I can now walk a bit myself with those glasses, but it requires training to be able to do so without bumping into them.’ https://www.newscientist.nl/blogs/prothese-kan-blinden-weer-wat-zicht-geven/