The ultimate form of VR is "artificial eyes"? The former co-founder of Neuralink took out a new product: Scientific Eyes!

The metaverse, or what should the ultimate form of virtual reality (VR) technology be like?

In 2021, after parting ways with Musk, the former co-founder of Neuralink Max Hodak left to start a new brain computer company Interface company Science Corp, the amount of funds raised in the industry is second only to Neuralink

Recently Hodak revealed a vision they are developing The prosthetic product "Science Eye" , once successful, can provide a new treatment method for blind people.

Currently, "Scientific Eye" has entered the animal experiment stage. According to the experimental results on rabbits, Hodak believes that the success rate of Scientific Eye is very high, and the fastest 18 It will take months to enter human experiments.

In the future, even normal people can use scientific eyes. Compared with the current bulky headsets, it can bring immersive virtual experiences without surgery. Perhaps this is the ultimate VR product!

Eye of Science: The ultimate form of VR?

In the field of brain-computer interface (brain-computer inter), Max Hodak is basically among the top. As early as 2016, Hodak co-founded Neuralink with Musk and other eight people.

But in 2021, due to intensified internal conflicts, slow technology development and other reasons, human experiments were also delayed for a long time, leading Hodak to decide to leave Neuralink and quietly founded a science company (Science Corp), doing something similar to Neuralink but slightly different.

Although Scientific Corporation is a rising star in the field of brain-computer interfaces, it has raised a total of US$160 million in funding, second only to Musk's Neuralink in the industry

Science Company's first major project is Science Eye. Its main purpose is to try to make prosthetic eyes for blind people, but the uniqueness of Science Eye lies in its A fusion of neural gene editing and a special implant.

Although Scientific Eye is still in the animal experiment stage, its potential and possible future application scenarios are very attractive to investors.

The Eye of Science mainly consists of two parts. One is a simple gene therapy, which adds a protein to the optic nerve cells to make them sensitive to light; the other It is a tiny LED thin film display placed on the retina that drives the modified cells.

The protein provided in the experiment is not sensitive to ordinary sunlight and is only sensitive to the implanted flexible micro-luminescent diodes.

Together these two parts can restore vision to patients who have lost photoreceptor cells, such as rods and cones, which cause blindness.

Experimenters have now implanted scientific eyes into rabbits, but careful observation of tissue imaging is needed to determine whether the gene therapy is effective, or whether the implant has an unexpected effect For the role, Hodak said that animals will be used as little as possible.

What does it take to find in a rabbit to mark success? What is the success rate so far?

The experimenters used traditional electrodes to record the visual cortex of the animals to see whether the stimulation given to the retina could be recovered through the micro-LED array, which could be used as a signal to enter Evidence for fundamental principles of the brain.

Although it is still in the experimental stage, Hodak believes that this idea will definitely succeed.

Why have other companies that tried this in the past failed? How did Scientific Eyes avoid these mistakes?

There are many companies developing visual prostheses, such as Second Sight and Pixium Vision, which were early industry leaders using traditional electrodes.

But in the long term, Hodak believes that true high-resolution vision cannot be achieved using traditional electrodes.

There are also some companies using optogenetics technology, such as Bionic Sight and GenSight, but they use projectors mounted on glasses to drive opsin, which does not travel with the eye mobile, and has many disadvantages compared to the flexible micro-LED technology employed by Science Eyes, which maintains continuous cell-to-pixel mapping as the patient looks around and moves.

How long will it take before the eyes of science can be implanted in human patients?

Hodak said he hopes it will be 18 months!

If this technology proves successful in patients, will there be demand for a commercial version? If so, what kind of services can it provide?

#Hodak believes that the visual prosthesis developed by Science Corporation will eventually become mass-market, but it will be a different underlying technology rather than tiny light-emitting diodes.

No more information can be revealed until the first version of the Scientific Eye is installed on a patient.

But Hodak believes they have seen a way to create the ultimate AR/VR display technology without surgery.

Eyes of Science seems to be a more specific and focused effort than Neuralink. Did you learn anything while developing Neuralink?

Hodak said that the technical methods being developed by scientific companies are completely different from what Neuralink is doing, and that the vision goals of Scientific Eyes will eventually go far beyond clinical vision in the traditional sense. repair.

Bloomberg reported last month that Science Corp is now the second-most well-funded brain-computer interface company. Why do you think investors are attracted to your work?

Hodak believes that engineering the brain is indeed a remarkable goal if you are serious about it.

Once you realize that this is a possibility, it’s hard not to be attracted to this technology, whether as an operator or development team, or as an investor.

Obviously there's a big credibility hurdle right now as to what's actually possible, but if you can figure out how to do it, the potential benefits are huge. , so Hodak thinks it is very rational to support this attempt at a high level.

#For electronics enthusiasts, the current VR/AR is basically unattractive. What is different about Scientific Eyes, and what exactly is its mass-market appeal?

The "Scientific Eye" currently being discussed publicly is not an AR/VR device, at least not for people with normal vision.

If science companies can make this technology work, subsequent devices may achieve this, and augmented reality (VR) and virtual reality (AR) are two different things.

The potential of virtual reality is real and obvious, but the advantages are easily overlooked because currently it’s like strapping a phone to your face and Just walk past the coffee table or something.

It’s easy to immerse one’s sight and hearing, but it’s also difficult to immerse the rest of their body, e.g. People can run and jump and feel the breeze smoothly.

Hodak believes this will take many years and may be difficult to translate into real consumer devices.

When it comes to augmented reality technology, it’s obvious that AR is the logical conclusion of smartphones.

Apple is developing AR glasses, and Hodak suspects they could eventually replace the iPhone.

AR is more than just a screen floating in your field of view: in order for it to be truly immersive, it must be semantically aware of the world and what you are seeing.

Hodak believes that Apple understands this, which is also an important reason why they invest heavily in machine learning on low-power chips, because the really difficult part of AR is on wearable devices Scene recognition runs in real time, although display technology still has a long way to go.

In the long run, Hodak believes that there is a limit to the ultimate product experience that wearing glasses can bring.

If there is a technology that can move with the eyes and fully panoramic, and a method that can be used when closing the eyes, then there will be very big advantages, those are A truly psychedelic product.

While the concept of virtual reality remains flashy, overall, Hodak expressed a very cautious view on the company's trajectory.

Currently, the scientific company is focusing on promoting its first product to patients. Once successful, perhaps this startup will bring brain-computer interfaces into a new chapter.

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