MEMS device brings sight to the blind.(Brief Article)

ALBUQUERQUE, NM -- Researchers from Sandia National Laboratories, four other national labs, a private company, and two universities are working together to developed a MEMS-based device that will enable blind people to see. The idea, funded by a $9 million, three-year grant from the Department of Energy's Office of Biological and Environmental Research, is to create 1000 points of light through 1000 tiny MEMs (microelectromechanical systems) electrodes.

The electrodes will be positioned on the retinas of those blinded by diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. These diseases damage rods and cones in the eye that normally convert …