Okay, so I have been staring at this diagram of the human eye all day. I am completely convinced that I can, with current technology, remove that eye and replace it with a cybernetic eye... A PROGRAMMABLE eye...
It starts like this... There are 3 layers of a human eye.
The first, the sclera, is basically a membraneous sack that the eye floats around in. That sack gives the eye its' shape, and enables it to perform its' functions.
Second, you have the choriod membrane, which is located below the sclera and between the retina which contains muscle tissue for movement of the ciliary muscle which in turn rotates the lense of the eye. That lense is protected by the iris, the black parts of our eyes. The iris is also controlled by the ciliary muscle which enables a sphincter-like function. The more open the iris, the more light gets into the lense.
Finally, the retina is composed of cells that enable light that enters the iris and through the lense to be transferred to the brain via photoreceptors called cone and rod cells. These cone and rod cells are at their most dense in the back of the eye in a small grove in the retina called the fovea centralis. Light is the most focused in the fovea centralis. The nerve impulses generated by the retinal cells travel through the optic nerve into the brain which results in vision.
The eye itself is basically a device that we could recreate ourselves. Since the retina is the location where information is transferred to the brain, it would be highly possible to remove all but the retinal layer of the eye and replace those parts with a device that could control eye function. With the customized device, you could come up with some very creative uses of a manufactured eye that might be easily maintained and replaced if needed.
You could start by removing the sclera, then the iris, then the choroid, and finally the lense. The retinal layer does not completely envelop the front of the eye, so it could be removed without causing severe damage. However, the tools for this kind of an operation would need to be extremely intricate, as damage to the retina may be irreversible.
The retinal tissue would still need to be supplied with the vitreous humor that floats throughout the posterior compartment of a fully intact eye. Certain retinal cells produce this humor, which could be regenerated should the humor be difficult to extract during the operation.
All in all, we are moving forward very fast. The only thing we need is what I want to major in... The Cybernetic Brain. It is going to be a great future, if my smoking habits don't kill me first!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Josh, Notochords, and You
In the Animal Kingdom, there are may different kinds of living things. My interest is in the Chordates, or the creatures with vertibrae. My focus is on the superclass Vertebrata and the species Homo Sapien. My organs of interest are the brain, the eyes, and the spinal chord. Why? I want to attach computers to these organs. I think it is possible to bypass or improve some of the normal biological functions of the organs with computer processors and current transfer devices.
But, there is something that just popped up today that I hadn't thought about. Acorn Worms. They are in a phylum all their own, Hemichordata. They have all of the components of phyla Chordata, except they do not have a notochord. There are only 2 classes of Hemichordata, 2 classes (third proposed), and very few species that fit within the phylum. Hemichordata are considered the sister phylum of Echinodermata, or starfish. (Wow, I didn't realize they were related to starfish, that was new. I just automatically assumed they were related to the Earthworms in phylum Annelida)
Every Chordate has or has had a notochord at some point in its' development. The notochord is pretty important as far as research on the central nervous system is concerned. There is just too much data for me to sift through on the notochord itself, but I do know a local doctor who did some work on the brain and spinal cord, I think I might go drop in and say hi tomorrow or maybe even this afternoon and ask him a few questions about the notochord significance in brain development and transfer of neural "data" throughout the nervous system.
But, there is something that just popped up today that I hadn't thought about. Acorn Worms. They are in a phylum all their own, Hemichordata. They have all of the components of phyla Chordata, except they do not have a notochord. There are only 2 classes of Hemichordata, 2 classes (third proposed), and very few species that fit within the phylum. Hemichordata are considered the sister phylum of Echinodermata, or starfish. (Wow, I didn't realize they were related to starfish, that was new. I just automatically assumed they were related to the Earthworms in phylum Annelida)
Every Chordate has or has had a notochord at some point in its' development. The notochord is pretty important as far as research on the central nervous system is concerned. There is just too much data for me to sift through on the notochord itself, but I do know a local doctor who did some work on the brain and spinal cord, I think I might go drop in and say hi tomorrow or maybe even this afternoon and ask him a few questions about the notochord significance in brain development and transfer of neural "data" throughout the nervous system.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Sorry for no updates
I have been REALLY busy for awhile studying up on the human brain. My focus is to work on the biology and computer programming and combine the two to see if an electronic device could be grafted inside or outside of the eye that would enable a computer interface to be applied directly to light entering the eye.
There is a gentleman who has developed a microchip for implantation into the rear of the eye for the sake of allowing some people with degenerative eye conditions to see again. The chip basically functions as a damaged optic disk. Light entering the eye is reflected onto the chip, and the chip redirects the light into the optic nerve correctly, allowing vision. I want to do something similar, however I want to install an entire computer in half of the brain.
It has already been shown that a human brain can be cut in half, and the neurons regrow to reattach to nerves to re-enable bodily functions stopped by the severing of half of the brain. I want to replace that half of the brain or possibly more with a computer system that enables automatic and normal nerve function and also enables other functions to be included. Will be great if we figure it out.
There is a gentleman who has developed a microchip for implantation into the rear of the eye for the sake of allowing some people with degenerative eye conditions to see again. The chip basically functions as a damaged optic disk. Light entering the eye is reflected onto the chip, and the chip redirects the light into the optic nerve correctly, allowing vision. I want to do something similar, however I want to install an entire computer in half of the brain.
It has already been shown that a human brain can be cut in half, and the neurons regrow to reattach to nerves to re-enable bodily functions stopped by the severing of half of the brain. I want to replace that half of the brain or possibly more with a computer system that enables automatic and normal nerve function and also enables other functions to be included. Will be great if we figure it out.
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