We now live in an age where radical technology 

can help the blind to see,

an impressive enough accomplishment in its own right that gets even
more mind-bending when you consider what's it means for the future. UV
vision? Eyeballs that zoom in and out like a camera lens? It's coming!

Scientists 'round the world are working to improve the retinal prosthesis
system, or what many people simply call a bionic eye. The leading device
in the States is called the Argus II, created by California company Second
Sight. It costs about $145,000 and has been used by some 80 visually
impaired people in the last few years.

Over in Germany, a leading bionic eye product called the Alpha IMS is

a self-contained bionic eye—which means instead of an (awkward)
external camera, it has a built-in sensor sending signals to the retina. The
other major advantage is it uses 25 times the electrodes of the Argus II,
which greatly increases resolution. Bionic eye researchers at University of
New South Wales in Australia predict there will be a fully functioning
artificial eye available by 2020.

The next great leap forward will be to bypass the eye and go straight to the
brain. At this point, many visually impaired people aren't able to benefit
from the implant, which requires a functioning retina to work. That leaves
people with damaged retinas or that have lost their vision to infection, or
diseases like glaucoma or diabetes, out of luck. Second Sight is "working
on a new implant that bypasses even the retinal layer, and implants
electrodes directly onto the visual region of the brain," Second Sight CEO
Dr. Robert Greenberg told the BBC. A trial for this is
currently scheduled for five blind patients with Age-Related Macular
Degeneration. This could herald the breakthrough millions of blind
people have been waiting for.
It inevitably conjures up scenes from science fiction. Take the ocular
enhancements of Star Trek's Geordie La Forge, who has infrared sight,
night vision, and telescopic vision. The developments in retinal implant
technology now raises the question: Are these these seemingly sci-fi
upgrades possible for everyone in the future?

It's a question that's yet to be answered, but there's reason to be

optimistic. Some scientists working on bionic devices know the device is
not only capable of helping the visually impaired, but, like all bionic
devices, giving human beings superhuman ability.

"For me personally, one of the inspirations was Steve Austin, the bionic

man," Greenberg recently told Bloomberg TV when asked if his
technology could be applied to other industries like gaming. "I think
direct interface is probably in the future. I don't know how far out, but it's
probably there."

What he means is if researchers can send signals directly to the brain, the
brain can learn to interpret those signals and essentially recreate them as
a visual image or function. Take telescopic sight, for example, which is
already here. We can teach our brains to interpret the powerful zoom-in
or zoom-out functions of cameras—we could learn to see much farther
and closer than the natural human eye.

In fact, Brian Mech, VP of Business Development of Second Sight, told

me, "We could tomorrow allow our patients to see outside the visible
spectrum by using a different input device than a visible spectrum camera
(an IR camera for example). We can also already provide telescopic
vision."
But it gets more bizarre than that. If bionic eyes can see the entire
electromagnetic spectrum, that would include infrared vision, heat-
sensing capabilities, ability to detect certain gases, and probably even the
ability to see right through objects. We could end up with those powers of
perception too. We already have devices to measure all these things—the
key is shrinking them enough to get them into an implant (or other
tethered bodily device) that communicates directly with the brain in a way
that renders the input sensible.

It's still speculative, for sure. But far into the future we might become a
walking science lab, able to utilize a wide range of devices and
applications built into our bionic eyes. The applications would be endless.
Soldiers could possess X-ray vision that detects landmines in the ground
they're fighting on. Parents could detect dangerous gases in their
children's rooms in the same way a carbon monoxide alarm functions.
People on first dates might use airport scanner technology to scope each
other out, even see what's beneath each others' clothing. If we can project
images directly into the visual areas of our brains, we may see things we
never imagined, including the millions of microbes living on each of us.

But it gets even more bizarre than that. A robotic eye may able to be set so
it never sleeps and will always be on guard, ready to wake you in danger
or when it gets light outside. It will also be Wi-Fi enabled, and ready to
record your entire life and stream it live on YouTube—or ready to
instantly post images on Facebook and Twitter. Or ready to play video
games inside your head, like Greenberg alluded to. Your favorite sitcom
could play right through the eye into your brain, completely skipping TV.

Currently, the human eye sees about 1 percent of the light spectrum in the
universe. That's not much when you think about it. Futurists like myself
think that decades from now the bionic eye will improve so much that it
will likely see far more than that tiny 1 percent. And because we have two
eyes, it seems plausible some people—especially biohacker and cyborg
enthusiasts—will replace a biological eye with a bionic eye once that
technology arrives. Experience of our universe will never be quite the
same.