Elon Musk announced an implant that will allow people blind from birth to see: what is it about

The American startup Neuralink has developed an experimental visual implant Blindsight that will allow even people blind from birth to see to people What's more, the device will allow you to see even in infrared and ultraviolet spectra.

Its owner, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, announced the new development of the Neuralink startup. However, he clarified: so far the Blindsight implant provides a low-quality image.

“Neuralink's Blindsight device will allow even those who have lost both eyes and the optic nerve to see. Provided that the visual cortex of the brain is not damaged, it will allow even those who were blind from birth to see,” – stressed Musk.

So far, the implant's image quality is “as low as Atari's (game consoles) graphics,” Musk said. However, in the future, the device will allow vision in the infrared and ultraviolet spectrum, and can also work as a radar, he added.

Musk compared the development of his startup to the device worn by the blind-from-birth character of the TV series “Star Trek” Jordi La Forge But neither the billionaire nor his startup showed what the device will actually look like.

In general, Neuralink, rather modestly reported that their visual implant Blindsight received the appropriate permission from the US Food and Drug Administration. That is, it opens the way to testing the device on people. The startup is already looking for volunteers for testing.

Neuralink is engaged in the development of brain implants, which should become an interface for interaction between the human brain and an electronic device. The startup is engaged in the development of neural chips that can be implanted directly into the human brain in order to eliminate the consequences of certain diseases, expand memory, treat paralysis, blindness, depression, Parkinson's disease, etc.

In the first advertising products of Neuralink, it was assumed being able to mentally play video games or download and play back memories. The creators of the series “Black Mirror” devoted a separate series to the last opportunity.

Neuralink is currently suing its former employees and animal rights activists – the latter claim that in the years 2016-2022, at least 1,500 experimental animals died during tests (this fact made it into several episodes of “The Cleaner from the Future”).