A tiny silicon and platinum chip that sits on the retina of a woman's eye is allowing her to see again.

Linda Moorfoot suffers from a condition called retinitis pigmentosa but her sight has been restored through a bionic eye - a camera worn on a pair of dark glasses.

Developed in the US, the technology sends images to a radio receiver implanted near the eye which transmits a signal to the platinum chip in the retina.

This information is then transported down the optic nerve and into the brain enabling her to see.

Dr Mark Humayun, professor of ophthalmology and biomedial engineering at the Doheny Eye Institute in Los Angeles, is developing the technology and believes technology will be able to improve the sight of blind people.

His team have developed a small camera powerful enough to be inserted into the patient's eye, alleviating the need for glasses.

"The camera is very, very small and very low power, so it can go inside your eye and couple your eye movement to where the camera is," he told Sky News.

Source:

'Bionic eye' offers grandmother the chance to enjoy a view of the future, 21/04/08
http://news.scotsman.com/uk/39Bionic-eye39-offers-grandmother-the.4001464.jp

World's First True Bionic Eye, 21/04/08
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91251-1313409,00.html?f=rss