Following recieved from a Research Coordinator at the University of St. Louis

Harvey Boots


Harvey
You were correct.  Dr. Smith did in fact implant the device in
Portugal.  I did not know this.  Below is a recent news release from
Saint Louis University.  The company is the Dobelle Institute and the
inventor is William H. Dobelle, Ph.D.  I hope this helps.

 Futuristic System Brings Vision to Blind

ST. LOUIS -- A Saint Louis University neurosurgeon has become the first
U.S. doctor to implant a potentially revolutionary electronic eye device
that allows a blind patient to see. He is the only United States doctor
ever to perform the procedure.

Kenneth R. Smith Jr., M.D., professor of neurosurgery at Saint Louis
University School of Medicine, performed the two- to three-hour surgical
procedure in Lisbon, Portugal, in April. He was one of four specialists
who operated on eight blind patients who paid to receive artificial
vision systems developed by the Dobelle Institute.

A report on the progress of the patients -- and news that the artificial
vision system now is commercially available abroad -- was presented June
13 at the 48th annual meeting of the American Society for Artificial
Internal Organs in New York.

"With this technology, there's new hope that some patients who have lost
their vision through trauma can unscramble light patterns well enough to
function," Smith said. "Patients who live in darkness potentially have a
light at the end of the tunnel."

The artificial vision system is a more complicated version of the visor
worn by Geordi La Forge, the blind chief engineer in the science fiction
television show Star Trek: The Next Generation. Patients are implanted
with devices that act as artificial eyes by stimulating the visual
cortex of the brain.

Two patients, who had been totally blind before their surgeries in
April, have already learned to use the prosthetic system well enough to
slowly drive cars on private property. They could walk freely around a
laboratory, avoid obstacles and look outside a window to see a tree.

"It's amazing now. It was science fiction a few years ago," said William
H. Dobelle, Ph.D., chairman and chief executive officer of The Dobelle
Institute, developer of the artificial vision system. Dobelle had
consulted with the writers of Star Trek: Next Generation, before they
created a blind character who used an artificial vision system to see.

"As our technology improves and becomes less costly, Braille will become
obsolete, the long cane will become obsolete and the guide dog will
become obsolete as surely as the airplane replaced the steamship,"
Dobelle said.

Smith has been working with the Dobelle Institute, a privately held
company that creates medical devices, since 1970. Dobelle began
developing an artificial vision system in 1968, and the project has
picked up steam as computer technology has improved.

The artificial vision system is designed for patients who have lost
their vision from an injury and are not candidates for retinal implants.
The procedure costs $98,000.

Patients use special sunglasses fitted with a miniature television
camera and a microcomputer and stimulator. The gear attaches by cable to
a tiny fire hydrant-like device implanted in the back of the skull that
connects to electrodes on the surface of the visual part of the brain.

Patients don't have "normal" vision." Instead, they see white flashes of
light that resemble stars on a black background, and learn to interpret
the patterns so they can gain mobility.

"By putting an array of electrodes in the brain, patients see a pattern
of white spots that they could learn to interpret well enough to get
some useful vision," Smith said.

Established in 1836, Saint Louis University School of Medicine has the
distinction of awarding the first M.D. degree west of the Mississippi
River. Saint Louis University School of Medicine is a pioneer in
geriatric medicine, organ transplantation, chronic disease prevention,
cardiovascular disease, neurosciences and vaccine research, among
others. The School of Medicine trains physicians and biomedical
scientists, conducts medical research, and provides health services on a
local, national and international level.
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