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>> [Background Music] Since FDA approval last year, there hasn't been a surgery done.
And so the University of Michigan will be the first to implant this device.
>> My husband and I happened to hear on the news that FDA had approved the Argus.
And I was like, okay, where do I go now?
>> Argus II was invented in the United States, in California.
The way the Argus works is, it's an interaction between a camera and a biological system.
The patients that are eligible to have the surgery are patients
who have retinitis pigmentosa, a group of retinal diseases that are inherited.
The patients who want to have the surgery have low useable vision.
For example, they're not able to see objects in front of them.
They're not able to see hand motions in front of them.
And those are the patients that get benefit from a surgery like this.
>> Today, Dr. David Zacks and I will be doing a Argus II implantation
at the University of Michigan.
>> The Argus system consists of three things: a retinal chip that sits on the retina
and is connected to a cable; a video camera which is mounted on a pair of glasses;
and a video processing unit that essentially catches that information on the video camera
and processes it to a form that can be transmitted to the retinal chip.
And so when you see objects in front of you, people in front of you, that will be converted
to a signal that is transmitted to this chip, which stimulates the nerve fibers and the cells
of the retina, and then the signal is conducted to the brain.
With this device, it is expected that they will be able to see objects or lights in front
of them, recognize people standing in front of them.
This will enable them to navigate a little bit better at home, be more independent,
and have the pleasures of seeing things that we take for granted.
>> I just hope I can enjoy life a little more.
I so desperately want to see my grandchildren.
I won't be able to distinguish their faces, but I understand I can see objects, you know,
see figures; see my grandchildren run across the yard.
That just means a lot to me.
[ Music ]