Blindness

Artificial retinas have the potential to restore some sight to people with certain kinds of blindness, but they contain complex electronics that can overheat. Now a Stanford team has found a way to potentially bypass the issue.

In recent tests, it has been shown that a depth perception-boosting headset could help legally-blind users to avoid collisions.

​Haptic signing is a process in which a hearing, sighted person conveys information to a deaf and blind individual by touching their back or other parts of their body. It's effective, but what happens if the deafblind person wants to be more independent? New haptic-feedback clothing could help.

​Caused by autoimmune diseases, chemical burns, or sometimes even as a side effect of eye surgery, corneal melting is an incurable disease that's a major cause of blindness. It could someday be treated using a contact lens, however, which is currently in the works.

​Most people will agree that phone conversations are more awkward than face-to-face chats, since you can't gauge the other person's mood by seeing their facial expressions. This is a constant challenge for the blind, which is why Huawei has developed the "face-reading" Facing Emotions app.

​Glaucoma occurs when a blockage causes aqueous humor fluid to accumulate within the eye faster than it can drain out. This increases intraocular pressure, which can in turn damage the optic nerve, causing blindness. A new implant, however, may be particularly effective at reducing that pressure.

​Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the leading causes of blindness in older people, with the "wet" form of the disease being responsible for about 90 percent of all cases of AMD-related severe vision loss. There may be new hope, however, in the form of an experimental eye implant.

In future, the Three Blind Mice might be able to avoid running into the farmer’s wife. In a study, scientists managed to restore vision in mice born with congenital blindness, using gene therapy to reprogram base retinal cells into functioning rod photoreceptors.

​In today’s connected world we are increasingly having blue light beamed into our eyes at all times of day.​ A new study from the University of Toledo has homed in on exactly how blue light can damage our eyes and the researchers recommend avoiding looking at cell phones and tablets in the dark.​

Located on the back of the eye, the retina is a layer of nerve cells that convert incoming light to electrical signals – allowing us to see. Now, scientists have developed a rudimentary artificial retina, that could conceivably one day restore sight to the blind.

​In the more advanced stages of diabetes, the patient has a real risk of going blind. While there are treatments to help keep this from happening, they're invasive and often painful. There may be new hope, though, in the form of glowing contact lenses.

It's been a truly historic year for modern medicine with the FDA for the first time approving several gene therapies for public use. The latest approval, this time for treating a rare form of inherited vision loss, marks 2017 as a milestone year in the field of medicine.