This sounds pretty invasive. I wonder how the expense and results will compare to other avenues of research.
I remember a few years ago, researchers were working on basically a retainer that would pair with configured glasses to provide different sensations to different parts of the mouth according to different visual stimulus. It wasn’t true 1:1 vision, obviously. You couldn’t watch TV, for example, but I was shocked how much the test subjects were able to interpret with just that additional bit of data, no surgery, and about a Raspberry Pi’s worth of electronics and sensors.
Yeah, I agree it is invasive and seems extremely risky. I have visual impairments, but not enough to consider this type of invasive procedure. I’m guessing this right now is for people who feel the potential benefits outweigh the risk of an invasive procedure (perhaps - what is there to lose?).
Blind people regaining sight? I bet Huffman would turn that into an argument in favour of the API bullshit