Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

The original title: "the ultimate form of VR is" false eyes "? The former co-founder of Neuralink pulls out a new product: the Eye of Science! "

Science companies recently detailed the first product they are developing, the Eye of Science, in an attempt to restore eyesight for the blind, which may become the ultimate form of VR in the future!

What should the ultimate form of meta-universe, or virtual reality (VR) technology, look like?

In 2021, after parting ways with Musk, Max Hodak, the former co-founder of Neuralink, left to start a new brain-computer interface company, Science (Science Corp), which is second only to Neuralink in the industry.

Hodak recently revealed a visual prosthesis product called Science Eye, which, if successful, could provide a new treatment for people with blindness.

At present, the Eye of Science has entered the animal experimental stage. According to the results of the rabbit experiment, Hodak believes that the success rate of the Eye of Science is very high, and it can enter the human experiment as soon as 18 months.

In the future, even normal people can use the eyes of science, compared with the current bulky head show, no surgery can bring immersive virtual experience, 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 the top stream. As early as 2016, Hodak co-founded Neuralink with Musk and eight others.

But in 2021, human experiments were delayed for a long time due to increased internal conflicts and slow technological development, leading Hodak to leave Neuralink and quietly start a science company (Science Corp) to do something similar to Neuralink but slightly different.

Although the science company is a new star in the field of brain-computer interface, it has raised a total of $160 million, second only to Musk's Neuralink in the industry.

The first major project of the science company is the Scientific Eye (Science Eye), which aims to try to create an artificial eye for the blind, but the Scientific Eye is unique in that it combines neural gene editing with a special implant.

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

The eye of science consists of two parts, one is simple gene therapy, which adds a protein that makes optic nerve cells sensitive to light, and the other is a miniature LED film display screen placed on the retina, which can drive the changed cells.

The protein provided in the experiment is not sensitive to ordinary sunlight, but only sensitive to implanted flexible micro-light-emitting diodes.

Taken together, these two parts can restore vision to patients who have lost their photoreceptors, such as blindness caused by rods and cones.

Researchers have implanted the eye of science into rabbits, but tissue imaging needs to be carefully examined to determine whether gene therapy is effective or whether the implants have played an unexpected role, and Hodak says he will use as few animals as possible.

What do you need to find in the rabbit to mark success? What is the success rate so far?

The researchers used traditional electrodes to record the visual cortex of animals to see whether the stimulation to the retina could be recovered through a miniature LED array, which could be used as basic evidence for signals entering the brain.

Although it is still in the experimental stage, Hodak thinks the idea will definitely succeed.

Why have other companies that have tried to do this in the past failed? how does the Eye of Science avoid these mistakes?

Many companies are developing visual prostheses (visual prostheses), such as Second Sight and Pixium Vision, which used traditional electrodes as early industry leaders.

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

There are also companies that use optogenetics technologies, such as Bionic Sight and GenSight, but they use projectors mounted on glasses to drive visual proteins, which do not move with the eyes and have many disadvantages compared to the flexible micro-LED technology used by Science Eye, which maintains a continuous cell-to-pixel mapping as patients look around and move.

How long will it take for the eye of science to be implanted into human patients?

Hodak said he hoped it would be 18 months!

If the technology proves to be successful in patients, will there be a need for a commercial version? If so, what kind of service can it provide?

Hodak believes that visual prostheses developed by science companies will eventually develop into the mass market, but it will be a different basic technology rather than miniature light-emitting diodes.

No more information can be revealed until the first version of the Eye of Science is installed on patients.

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

The Eye of Science seems to be a more specific and focused task than Neuralink. Did you learn anything in the process of developing Neuralink?

Hodak said that the technology that science companies are developing is completely different from what Neuralink is doing, and that the visual goal of the scientific eye will eventually go far beyond the traditional clinical visual restoration.

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

Hodak believes that if you are serious, engineering the brain is indeed an excellent goal.

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

Obviously, there is still a big credibility barrier to what is really feasible, but the potential benefits are great if you can figure out how to do it, so Hodak thinks it makes sense to support this attempt at a high level.

For e-enthusiasts, the current VR / AR is basically unattractive. What's the difference between the Eye of Science and its mass market appeal?

At present, the "eye of science" under public discussion 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 do so, and augmented reality (VR) and virtual reality (AR) are different things.

The potential of virtual reality is real and obvious, but this advantage is easy to overlook, because right now it's like strapping your phone to your face and then walking across the coffee table or something.

It's easy to immerse a person's sight and hearing, but it's also difficult to immerse themselves in other parts of their body. for example, in reality, 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.

For augmented reality technology, it is obvious that AR is the logical conclusion of smartphones.

Apple is working on AR glasses, which Hodak suspects could eventually replace the iPhone.

AR is not just a screen floating in your field of vision: in order for it to be truly immersive, it must be semantically aware of the world and what you see.

Hodak thinks Apple understands this, which is an important reason why they have invested heavily in machine learning on low-power chips, because the really difficult part of AR is running scene recognition in real time on wearables, although display technology still has a long way to go.

In the long run, Hodak believes that there is an upper limit to the ultimate product experience of wearing glasses.

If there is a technology that can move with the eyes and have a complete panoramic view, as well as a method that can be used when closing the eyes, then there is a great advantage. Those are the really psychedelic products.

Although the concept of virtual reality is still flashy, Hodak as a whole expresses a very cautious view of the company's trajectory.

At present, science companies are focusing on extending their first product to patients, and if successful, perhaps the startup will take the brain-computer interface into a new chapter.

Reference:

Https://futurism.com/the-byte/max-hodak-ultimate-vr-tech

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: Xin Zhiyuan (ID:AI_era)

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