On the Way to Biomechanical Sight
We live in an era close to artificial eyes, to regrowth of complex organs, and to a full melding of technology and biology. So you'll see things like this on the way to where we're going: "The technique could enable sufferers of retinitis pigmentosa, age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy to see. In the advanced stages, retinas with these disorders can no longer detect light, which means they no longer have usable rods and cones, but all their remaining neurons, such as the ganglion cells, survive. This raises the possibility that a retinal prosthetic could bypass the diseased tissue and stimulate the remaining healthy cells. ... A discreet prosthetic in front of the patient's eyes would capture images with a camera and process the information. It would then stimulate ganglion cells by outputting a series of bright, intense light spots to them. ... With gene therapy, a patient's entire population of ganglion cells could be turned into light-sensitive neurons. ... The prosthetic will also use retinal algorithms to replace the visual processing lost in the diseased retinal tissue. ... So essentially we've put all the engineering outside the eye, and the device will attempt to talk to the retinal ganglion cells through optical communication."
Link: http://www.theengineer.co.uk/Articles/304195/Seeing+the+light.htm