A tiny eye implant called PRIMA has been developed by Professor Daniel Palanker’s team at Stanford University.
It has helped some legally blind people with severe dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) regain parts of their lost central vision in a study that began in late 2024. The results were reported in a medical journal in October 2025 after the participants were followed for one year.
Dry AMD slowly damages the macula, the centre part of the retina that helps you see fine details. People with AMD can often still see around the edges, but the middle of their vision becomes blurry or missing. This can make reading, recognising faces, and spotting small objects very difficult. PRIMA aims to do the work that the damaged light-sensing cells can no longer do.
The system has two main parts: a tiny chip placed under the retina and special glasses with a built-in camera. The camera captures what the person is looking at and sends the information as light signals to the chip. The chip then turns those signals into messages the brain can use to form an image.
Researchers enrolled 38 people with advanced AMD, mostly older adults with an average age of 79. Thirty-two people completed the full year of testing. By the end, 27 of those participants could read letters, numbers, or words, even though they had little or no central vision before the implant. Scientists say this is an encouraging step, but the technology is not perfect yet.
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