Hi!
I know that there are not many of you who can read Swedish, but for
those of you who can, here is an interesting article from the public
Swedish Radio about an European team of scientist in Belgium, who
managed to take a first step towards an artificial vison.
http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/p1/program/artikel.asp?
ProgramID=406&Nyheter=1&artikel=564435

Maybe some one has time to write a translation of the full article
later, this is just my short version in English.
--
The team has developed a camera that is connected to the visual
nerve, and testpersons who has been blind has been able after a lot
of training to discern darkness from light. According to the eye
doctor innterviewed he thinks this solution would work for people
which have had a good vision but lost it due to retinal deseases like
RP.

He also thinks that it requries at least 5 years more of development
before it can be used as an aid, and more than 10 years development
before it is possible to create a vision good enough to give a blind
person vision enough for orientation.
--
/Caisa