More than half a century ago, when he was just 18 years old, Georges* learned that he had retinitis pigmentosa. He was told that his vision would progressively deteriorate until he was blind. As predicted, when Georges reached his early fifties, his world went completely dark. Last year, at the push of a button, Georges suddenly saw light again. “When they got the electrodes going, it was a real fireworks show,” he exclaims.50多年前，当乔治斯还是个18岁的小伙子时，意外患上了色素性视网膜炎。他被告诉视力将渐渐发育，以后全盲。不出所料，到了50多岁时，他的世界显得几乎漆黑一片。但是去年，就在一个按钮被按下的瞬间，乔治斯忽然新的看到了光明。

他惊叹道：“当他们都营电以后，感觉知道就像烟花演出一样。”Georges is part of a pilot program testing Iris, a product to restore vision to blind people, made by a young French company called Pixium Vision. The company’s founder, Bernard Gilly, is a scientist-turned-entrepreneur with a network of businesses focused on using technologies to improve human health, mostly around the nervous system.这款神秘的产品名为Iris系统，目的协助盲人完全恢复视力。它是由一家名为Pixium Vision，正式成立没多久的法国企业研发的，乔治斯正是首批试验该设备的病人之一。

该公司的创始人伯纳德o吉利原本是一位科学家，旗下享有多家致力于利用科技（大多环绕神经系统）提高人体身体健康的企业。“Ophthalmology seemed like a good way to approach the central nervous system because the eye, and especially the retina, is like a visible part of the brain,” Gilly says, noting that France counts 200,000 people in the country who are blind or nearly blind, and that generally there is no cure. “People are unaware of how prevalent the condition is because there are not many blind people in the streets. They are more prone to accidents, so they tend to stay home.”吉利认为：“眼科是研究人体中枢视经系统的一个好途径，因为眼睛、尤其是视网膜，就看起来大脑的一个可见部分。

”他认为，法国有大约20万人正处于全盲或相似全盲，而且基本上是不了医治的。“很多人不理解这种情况有多广泛，这是因为我们在街上看到很多盲人，因为他们在室外更容易再次发生事故，所以他们偏向于待在家里。

”Technological advances such as microbiology and microelectronics are creating new opportunities to restore sight, Gilly says, and scientists are making enormous strides in understanding the workings of the brain. It’s long been known that electricity can stimulate the nervous system, and a technique called “neuromodulation” is being used to address everything from Parkinson’s disease to chronic pain. Now, it can treat blindness, too.吉利回应，微生物学与微电子学等领域的技术变革，为盲人陈德带给了新的期望。另外科学家也代价了大量希望来解读大脑的工作机制。我们很久以前就告诉电流可以性刺激人的神经系统，另外，我们早已开始用于一种叫作“神经调节”的技术来化疗帕金森症和各种慢性疼痛。

现在，这项技术也能化疗眼盲了。The best candidates for Iris are patients with degenerative eye conditions. A surgeon implants a tiny silicon chip with 150 electrodes on the retina. Afterwards, the patient wears a pair of dark glasses with an integrated video camera that sends images to a portable mini-computer. This computer transforms the pictures into digital signals, which are sent back to the glasses, then transmitted wirelessly to a receiver on the implant. Pulses activate the electrodes, and the optic nerve carries the images to the brain.最合适用于Iris的是那些患上发育性眼病的患者。医生向患者的视网膜内植入一块具有150个电极的微小芯片。手术后，患者必须戴着上一副专用的墨镜，其中的构建摄像机可以向一台微型便携电脑传输图像。

这台电脑随后把图像转换成数字信号，返传遍墨镜上，然后再行无线传输至植入芯片的接收器上。电子脉冲不会转录电极，人的视神经之后不会将图像传输到大脑。After surgery, patients follow a program of rehabilitation to teach their brains how to interpret these new images. What they see is basic shapes in variations of black, white, and gray. (The resolution is still too low for them to distinguish facial features or read.)在拒绝接受手术后，患者必须参与一个康复项目，以教会他们的大脑如何理解这些新的图像。

他们所看到的只是一些黑白灰色的基本形状。（这套解决方案目前尚能无法让患者新的读者或辨识面部特征。）“We don’t give them back their sight, but another way of seeing,” says Yannick Le Mer, the surgeon who implanted the system in three of Pixium’s test subjects. Le Mer says it is impossible to know beforehand how anyone will react, since it depends on each brain’s adaptability—like learning to play the piano or speak Japanese. Some catch on immediately, while others struggle.亚尼克o拉o梅尔早已将这套系统植入三名测试者的眼球中。

他回应：“我们没让他们重拾视力，但获取了另一种让他们看到的办法。”拉o梅尔回应，目前无法告诉每名患者的反应如何，因为它各不相同每个大脑的适应性——就像学钢琴或学日语一样，有的人学得迅速，但也有人习得十分快。One recent autumn day, Georges, a small, soft-spoken man, traveled from his home in Brittany to the Quinze-Vingts hospital in eastern Paris. A young therapist named Alexandre Leseigneur was waiting for him, and the two spent the day together practicing using the system in the corridors. (The glasses were not yet available for practice at home.)去年秋天，一位个头不低，说出音节软语的男人从布列塔尼老家回到了巴黎东部的Quinze-Vingts眼科医院。

他就是乔治斯。一位名为亚历山大的医生正在等着他。

他们在医院走廊里用了两天时间自学怎样用于这套系统。（目前这套系统还无法用作在家锻炼）。Georges put the glasses on and hung a strap with the computer over his shoulder. The first time they went into the hallway, he moved hesitantly, shuffling sideways and reaching out his hand. “The flashes are too bright. I’m lost,” he said. Leseigneur plugged the glasses into a laptop computer, adjusted the settings, and they went out again. This time was better. Following a black band on the floor, Georges walked the length of a corridor and even managed to avoid an obstacle blocking his path.乔治斯戴上了眼镜，用一根带子把电脑挎在了肩上。

第一次，他们再行去了走廊。乔治斯移动得很犹豫不决，脚步跟着地向前蹭着，抱住摸着。

他说道：“光线过于暗了，我迷路了。”亚历山大将墨镜挂到一台笔记本电脑上，调整了设置，然后他们又过来了。

这一次好了一些。沿着地上的黑色图案，乔治亚走完了一个走廊的长度，甚至还跨过了路上的一个障碍物。Gilly estimates that when the Iris arrives on the European market in late 2015, the cost to each patient will be around 100,000 euros, plus surgery. Though that might sound expensive, he says it’s a bargain compared to the price of blindness. A study at the University of Chicago forecasts that in the United States alone, costs related to eye disease and vision problems will reach $717 billion by 2050.吉利预测称之为，等到Iris系统2015年末月投入欧洲市场，每名患者的成本大约不会在10万欧元左右，另外再行再加手术费。虽然这笔费用听得一起很喜，但吉利回应，和失聪比起，花上这笔钱还是很昂贵的。

芝加哥大学的一项研究指出，光是在美国，到2050年，由眼病和视力问题造成的成本就将低约7170亿美元。Last June, Pixium made an initial public offering, raising nearly 40 million euros (more than $53 million) from European investors. It is not the only company working in this field. Various permutations of what is commonly called a “bionic eye”—Gilly dislikes the term—are being developed from Germany to Australia. The pioneer is an American company, Second Sight Medical, which earned European approval for its Argus II system in 2011 and FDA approval in 2013. In November, Second Sight had its own successful IPO, raising some $32 million.去年六月，Pixium公司展开了IPO，从欧洲投资人手中融资近4000万欧元（约合5300多万美元）。Pixium并不是唯一一家专门从事失聪领域研究的企业。

从德国到澳大利亚，许多企业都在研发又称的“仿生眼”。其中一家名为“第二视觉医疗公司”（Second Sight Medical）的美国企业回头得更远，它的Argus II系统早已于2011年通过了欧洲证书，又于2013年通过了FDA(美国食物及药品管理局)证书。去年11月，第二视觉公司也顺利展开了IPO，融资大约3200万美元。

While the Iris is very similar to the Argus II, Gilly mentions a few key differences. His camera, for example, captures only the changes in the environment, so that the overall view is continuous, closer to the way the human eye actually sees. The implant can also be easily removed and replaced with upgrades as they become available.虽然Iris与Argus II系统十分类似于，但吉利也认为了一些不同之处。比如Iris的摄像头只捕猎环境的变化，所以它的总体视觉是持续大大的，更加切合现实人眼的视觉模式。另外，眼内的植入物也可以被只能去除并替换Ultra。The company’s next generation product, Prima, will start clinical trials in 2016. With at least 10 times as many electrodes, it should enable people to read and to see facial features. “Patients tell us that what they want first is autonomy and safety,” says Gilly. “After that, they want to be able to recognize their loved ones, to see their spouses or their grandchildren.”该公司的下一代产品Prima将于2016年开始临床测试。

Prima的电极比Iris多了10倍，应当可以让失聪者新的完全恢复读者和辨识面部特征的能力。吉利回应：“病人告诉他我们，他们首先想的是自主性和安全性。

其次，他们期望需要见到他们所爱的人，看见他们的爱人或孙子。”Since this is synthetic vision, the possibilities are vast. Soon the technology will permit users to see as clearly at night as during the day. A future device might be able to transmit the contents of an e-book or a movie directly to the retina. For now, Le Mer says, the goal is simply to help someone locate a door in a room. “It seems modest, but it’s huge.”由于它是一种制备视觉，因此它享有辽阔的可能性。

迅速，这项技术就可以让用户“视黑夜如白昼”。未来的某款设备甚至有可能必要将一本电子书或电影的内容感应到人的视网膜上。不过拉o梅尔回应，他们目前的目标还只是协助盲人寻找一间屋子的门。“看上去或许不是很宏伟的目标，但意义十分根本性。

”Georges agrees. He tells about how not long ago he was taking a walk near his home. “There was a truck parked across the sidewalk. My cane slipped under it, so I didn’t know it was there, and I smacked my head. If I had been using this system, I would have seen it.”乔治斯也表示同意这一点。他告诉他我们，前不久在他家附近散步时，“人行道对面停车了一辆卡车，我的手杖探到车子下面去了，所以我不告诉车子停车在那儿，结果撞了头。如果当时我早已用上了这个系统，我就不会看见它了。

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