A Cybernetic Eye

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!