Russell Turnbull, now 38, lost almost all the sight in his right eye after trying to break up a fight and being sprayed with ammonia 15 years ago. The result for him was what’s known as Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency, which caused him great pain, the need for therapeutic treatment, and economic dependency. Good news for Russell is that he can put all that behind him now, after becoming one of the first recipients of a new stem cell grafting procedure, whereby healthy tissue from his left eye was implanted into his right and — just like a video game medpack — restored his vision to normal. For the moment, this treatment is limited to patients with at least one healthy eye, but given the pluripotent nature of stem cells, it is hoped that tissue from elsewhere in the body could one day be used to regenerate damaged parts , such as the cornea in this case. You may find further enlightenment in the video after the break.

Implanted lenses may be old hat compared to newfangled sight restoration techniques involving radiation beams and teeth , but it looks like some eye surgeons in the UK have now come up with a few new tricks that promise to let patients see better than ever. The new process apparently starts out like a standard procedure for cataracts, but makes use of lenses made from light-sensitive silicone that can be fine tuned several times after the surgery, eventually giving the patient “HD vision” that’s said to be better than 20/20. The lenses can apparently even be adjusted for either bifocal or varifocal use, eliminating the need for some patients to wear glasses at all. Head on past the break for a video. [Thanks, Esevila] Continue reading Artificial lens implant promises to give patients ‘HD vision’ Artificial lens implant promises to give patients ‘HD vision’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:37:00 EST

LASIK’s been around a while , and somehow it was only a matter of time before designer vision, corneas custom-tailored to lifestyle and career, started to turn common. Could laser eye surgery will become the new graduation boob job? We upgrade, update, and customize nearly everything, so why not our vision too? Reach for the stars and all that jazz. And even the tech fits the theme: some more common optical surgical procedures are actually based on NASA technology: Wavefront technology, originally developed by NASA to aid the focus of the Hubble Space Telescope on distant stars, measures up to 250 spots in the pupil to provide a precise map of the cornea and iris. This offers the potential to correct problems not addressed by glasses, such as halos around lights at night or glare

With the PS3 Slim hogging the limelight , you may have missed Sony’s update on its motion sensing controller. This reel from GamesCon shows it waving about as a wand, flashlight, and yep, even a hair brush. Still only mini game demos though, and we won’t hear much more until the Tokyo Game Show on September 24. Hopefully we’ll get to see some live demos of real games, along with a finalized name and date to expect it in Spring . Also See: How Sony’s PlayStation Motion Controller Works

Have you ever been so enthralled by something on the internet that you can neither look away nor even blink, for fear of missing a mere microsecond? That’s improper ocular safety, and these glasses can help. Focusing your lifeless, deadened eyes on a computer screen for hours on end without blinking is, surprisingly enough, not so good for your sight. These glasses, made by Masunaga (designer of Sarah Palin’s glasses!) sense blinking, and if it doesn’t detect blinking within five seconds, it’ll turn the lenses opaque until you close your eyes, dammit. It charges via USB and costs $400, but we guess they’re worth it if you’re so mesmerized by your computer that you forget to moisten your eyeballs regularly. Remember, readers: Close your eyes and then quickly open them again! It’s healthy! [ Product Page via Boing Boing Gadgets ]

All we’ve got to say is that they’d better be selling seats to the first living room demonstration of this tech when somebody gets cute and grabs a real baseball bat for a demo. Sony has filed a patent for technology using the PlayStation Eye which can detect regular objects in 3D space and file them away in a database for later use in gameplay. Naturally, the camera already does object motion detection of a sort with the blocky embedded codes on Eye of Judgement cards, but this seems to be taking that tech to a new level, and would imply that you won’t necessarily need to be waggling that goofy ball-on-a-stick controller that Sony demoed at E3 for all upcoming motion control titles for the PS3. But for some reason we’re sure we should be scared of whatever combination it does turn out to be. [Via Joystiq ] Filed under: Gaming , Peripherals Sony nabs patent for everyday object motion detection: the fragile glass of your TV won’t know what hit it originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Jul 2009 10:13:00 EST.

Sony has taken a few of its developers aside and doled out a few new morsels of info about its upcoming PlayStation 3 motion controller . Leaving the Sixaxis as the black sheep of the family, the wand supports force feedback from the get-go, and up to four of the devices can be tracked at one time. The technology can work in conjunction with PlayStation Eye ’s face / head tracking and built-in mic, but naturally that’s gonna tax the Cell processor more. The company’s reportedly considering some joint use of the motion remote and standard controller, with the example given of holding the wand as sword and DualShock 3 as shield. We’re not sure if that’ll somehow count additionally toward the max wand limit — probably not, at the expense of not using the more accurate color-changing ball tracker — but it’s definitely more cost efficient for the consumer than having to pick up another remote

As sad as it sounds, most of us experience the world through photographs. Now MIT software engineers are taking that idea literally and mapping Flickr photos to regional maps in The World’s Eyes project. By pulling GPS metadata from uploaded photos (and then skinning that data in a neat 3D visualization), users can see how photographers/tourists see a given area. There’s overlap, yes, but that’s entirely the point. It’s a project more about capturing stereotypes (like the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Statue of Liberty in NY), than giving a Google Street View objective turn by turn of an area. Add tags like “party” to the mix, and that worldview is altered in very interesting, less predictable ways

Generally, there’s nothing that makes me laugh harder than an “I didn’t see you there” joke to a guy dressed in camouflage at the mall. But here’s one better. Simply named Invisible , this erased torso pattern is available on a short sleeve or long sleeve tee. But before you get too cocky and attempt an infiltration of the girl’s locker room, remember, females have excellent eyesight and can spot those little grey boxes a mile away.

It’s a meme that never gets old , wouldn’t you agree? As the world gathers ’round again to chuckle at an all-too-faithful GPS user in the UK , we’re looking this time at a man who literally drove his BMW to the brink of disaster while following his sat nav down a skinny, steep lane on the way to imminent death Todmorden. As the story goes, his navigation system apparently told him to drive directly into a fence just before the road fell off of a cliff, and considering that the 43 year old bloke uses the GPS for his job, you’d think he would have the whole “follow the leader” thing down pat. At any rate, the poor fellow did manage to survive, though he won’t soon shake the “driving without due care and attention” charge. Nor the embarrassment