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Jens Naumann on driving while blind using visual neural implants

Published: June 12, 2017, 10 a.m.

Jens Naumann was the first person to be able to see using bionic eyes after he lost his vision in both of his eyes. After proving his usefulness he was hired by the team of Dr. William Dobelle as a technical person with first hand (or first eye) experience. He was able to see 19 pixels using this brain implant and with this was able to drive a car which got him on the cover of WIRED magazine. After Dr. Dobelle suddenly died a year into the experiment, Jens was able to pick up the pieces using his technical knowledge of the project and write the book Search for Paradise: A Patient's Account of the Artificial Vision Experiment 

 

Wired magazine aug-2002 front cover featuring Jens' head

 

Page 99 compact image driving car on Wired