British man receives first 'bionic eye' to restore vision

A pioneering vision procedure using advanced technology appears to have been a success in its inaugural trial.

Ray Flynn, an 80-year old from Manchester, England, is the first patient with dry Age Related Macular Degeneration, or AMD for short, to have been implanted with the Argus II device which the overseeing hospital has termed a "bionic eye."

The system consists of a pair of glasses with a mounted camera that wirelessly feeds video information to the implant which turns the view into pulses.

Electrodes receive these signals and then pass them on to the remaining healthy cells of the retina for the brain to process.

Doctors determined that the four-hour procedure went well after he was able to differentiate between lines going in different directions on a computer screen—a capability he did not have before.

Flynn is now able to see shapes and outlines in the center of his vision which had disappeared over the past eight years due to the eye disease.

AMD affects more than 20 million people around the world.

The hospital plans to conduct additional trials with the implant system.