Over the past six months many promising announcements have come about related to improving eyesite for those with degenerative retinal disease. On March 30th the Bionic Vision Australia (BVA) presented it advanced prototype for the wide-view neurostimulator concept. BVA is a partnership of world-leading Australian research institutions collaborating to develop an advanced retinal prosthesis, or bionic eye, to restore the sense of vision to people with degenerative or inherited retinal disease. BVA was awarded a funding grant of $42 million back in December of 2009 from the Australian Government. It should be mentioned that BVA is a collaboration between a wide range of institutions with a cross disciplinary team. This includes the University of Melbourne, the University of New South Wales, the Bionic Ear Institute, the Centre for Eye Research Australia and NICTA.

The development team is comprised of retinal surgeons, vision clinicians, neuroscientists, biomedical and electrical engineers all focused on the advanced bionic eye. They estimated that 3 billion dollars a year go toward services for the blind and those with degenerative vision diseases in Australia alone.

The bionic eye consists of a small camera mounted to the frames of unique eyeglasses. Once the camera interprets the image, they are transmitted to a visual processing unit where the image is transformed into a series of electrical impulses that are then transmitted wirelessly through the skin to an electronics unit surgically mounted on the exterior of the eye. Enjoy learning about the latest prototype at the University of Melbourne's Visions Video Podcast, Episode 73: Bionic Eye In Sight

Blindness effects about 45 million people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization, with 314 million people suffering from some sort of visual impairment. According the same statistics about 85% of all visual impairment is avoidable globally.

And you can see some of the latest and greatest bionic innovations at CNN's Image Gallery of the Bionic Body

About 85% of all visual impairment is avoidable globally.

The video below was released in 2008 and provides an overview of the Bionic Vision Australia

Here is another video, this one is from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory showing their assistance in the development of the first long-term retinal prosthesis - called an artificial retina - that can function for years inside the harsh biological environment of the eye.