The artificial eye – how far science has reached in 2026
From retinal implants to artificial retina and whole eye transplantation
The idea of creating an artificial eye that would completely replace the human eye and restore sight to blind people has long belonged mostly to science fiction. In recent decades, however, biomedical engineering, microelectronics, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence have gradually begun to turn this idea into a real research task.
Today, implantable systems capable of producing visual sensations through electrical stimulation of the retina or brain already exist. Artificial retinas have also been developed that reproduce some of the functions of the biological retina. In 2025, clinical results of the PRIMA system showed restoration of functional central vision in a proportion of patients with advanced macular degeneration. (New England Journal of Medicine)
In August 2026, researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology published in Nature Materials a new system called THE-BRENA, representing a high-resolution hemispherical artificial retina with a full-color image and a very wide field of view. (Nature)
Despite these impressive achievements, as of 2026, science still does not have an artificial eye that can be placed in the place of the human eye and fully reproduce its functions.
What exactly is the human eye?
To understand the complexity of the task, it should be borne in mind that the eye is not just a biological camera.
The human eye contains an optical system made up of the cornea, lens, and other structures that focus light onto the retina. The retina, on the other hand, is not a simple light sensor. It is a complex nervous tissue containing photoreceptors – rods and cones – as well as many other types of nerve cells.
The received information is converted into electrical signals, partially processed already in the retina and then transmitted via the optic nerve to the brain.
Therefore, a complete artificial eye must simultaneously solve several different engineering and biological problems:
- to receive light;
- to focus the image;
- to convert light into electrical signals;
- to process visual information;
- to encode this information in a manner compatible with the nervous system;
- to transmit signals to the brain;
- to work safely in the human body;
- to use a minimum amount of energy;
- be biocompatible;
- and function reliably for many years.
It is the last step – communication with the human brain – that remains one of the biggest obstacles to creating a fully functional artificial eye.
The Argus II project – one of the first big successes
One of the most famous projects in the field of artificial vision is Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System, originally developed by Second Sight Medical Products.
The system uses a small camera mounted on glasses. The camera receives an image that is processed by an external processor. The information is then transmitted to an implanted electronic system that stimulates the retina via electrodes.
Argus II received European approval for use in certain patients with severe vision loss due to retinitis pigmentosa, and in February 2013 received approval from the US FDA under the Humanitarian Device Exemption procedure.
The system was an important demonstration that an electronic implant could induce useful artificial visual perception.
However, it is important to note that the Argus II is not a complete artificial eye.
The system does not replace the optical system of the eye, does not reproduce the normal retina and does not provide natural vision.
Also, the Argus II is no longer a current commercial system. Production and sales have been discontinued as developers focus on the next generation of artificial vision technology. (SEC)
Harvard/MIT and subretinal implants
Another important research approach was developed by teams associated with Massachusetts Eye and Ear and MIT, including Joseph Rizzo and John Wyatt.
In this approach, the electrode array is placed in the subretinal space – under the retina.
The idea is that the electronic implant is located closer to the natural structure of the retina and stimulates the remaining functioning nerve cells.
This is a fundamentally different approach than systems that directly stimulate retinal ganglion cells.
Such research demonstrates one of the main principles of modern visual prosthetics: instead of trying to restore the entire biological organ, the technology can bypass a damaged part of the visual system and transmit the information to the remaining functioning neural structures.
PRIMA – a new generation of photovoltaic artificial retina
One of the most interesting modern approaches is PRIMA, originally developed by Daniel Palanker’s team at Stanford University.
PRIMA uses a small subretinal photovoltaic implant consisting of multiple microscopic photodiodes.
The system uses special glasses that contain a camera and optical system. The resulting image is converted to near-infrared light and projected onto the implant.
Photodiodes in the implant convert light pulses into electrical signals that stimulate nerve cells in the retina.
Thus, the system uses part of the natural neural architecture of the eye, rather than trying to replace it completely.
Clinical results
The results of the large clinical trial of PRIMA, published in New England Journal of Medicine, represent an important stage in the development of retinal prostheses.
In the study, 38 patients with geographic atrophy due to age-related macular degeneration were implanted.
Of the 32 patients who were followed up at 12 months, 26 – or 81% – showed a clinically significant improvement in visual acuity. (New England Journal of Medicine)
When using digital magnification, some participants have achieved visual acuity that allows them to read text, including books, labels, and other everyday objects. (Stanford Medicine)
This is an extremely important result, but PRIMA is again not a complete artificial eye.
It restores a limited part of the visual function in a specific disease and uses the remaining biological visual system.
Bionic Vision Technologies
Another approach was developed by Bionic Vision Technologies (BVT) in Australia.
The company is developing a suprachoroidal system where electrodes are placed near the back of the eye without replacing the eye itself.
Published reviews of electronic retinal prostheses describe early clinical results with light perception and functional improvements in a subset of patients. At the same time, the system has not received regulatory approval as a widely available substitute for the human eye. (PubMed Central (PMC))
The technology shows another possible path to artificial vision – electrical stimulation of the visual system, without physically replacing the entire eye organ.
Orion – bypassing the eye
It is an even more radical approach Orion Visual Cortical Prosthesis System.
Instead of placing an electronic implant in the eye, the system aims to bypass the damaged eye and directly stimulate the visual cortex of the brain.
In this approach, the camera receives information about the environment, and an electronic system converts the information into electrical impulses that are fed to implanted electrodes in the area of the visual cortex.
This is especially interesting in diseases where not only the retina but also other parts of the eye are severely damaged.
According to the information released by the developers, Orion’s six-year early clinical study ended in March 2025, with the goal of the next phase of clinical development.
Orion shows that the future “artificial eye” may not actually be limited to the eye itself. It can represent an entire system:
camera → processor → neural code → brain implant → visual cortex
New generation: THE-BRENA – artificial retina with full color vision
In August 2026 in magazine Nature Materials a particularly interesting development by a team from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology was published.
The researchers present a bio-inspired system called THE-BRENA, based on a hemispherical artificial retina.
The technology has:
- 367,500 pixels;
- density 1,905 pixels per inch;
- full color image;
- spectral range from approximately 300 to 800 nm;
- field of view over 160°;
- motion processing directly in the sensor. (Nature)
Particularly interesting is that the system uses a curved, hemispherical structure similar to the geometry of the human retina.
In a traditional camera, the flat sensor and optical system must compensate for various optical aberrations. With the hemispherical design, some of these limitations can be reduced.
The system also demonstrated a significant reduction in the required information flow during motion detection, with the authors reporting over 99.95% lower bandwidth requirements compared to traditional frame-based processing in the particular experiment. (Nature)
However, it is important to emphasize that THE-BRENA is bio-inspired artificial visual sensor, not an artificial eye implanted in a human.
This distinction is essential.
The first transplant of a whole human eye
Parallel to the development of electronic eyes, another extremely interesting scientific approach is being developed – the transplantation of a biological whole eye.
In May 2023, a team at NYU Langone Health performed the world’s first known successful transplant of a whole human eye combined with a transplant of part of the face.
Patient Aaron James lost his eye and a significant portion of his face in a severe electrical shock.
During the operation, doctors transplant the entire eye, eye socket and optic nerve along with other tissues. The operation lasts approximately 21 hours. (NYU Langone Health)
The result is remarkable from the point of view of transplant medicine.
The transplanted eye remains viable. Normal blood supply and blood flow to the retina were observed, and some of the photoreceptors – rods and cones – survived. (NYU Langone Health)
But the patient did not recover vision with the transplanted eye.
This is one of the most important scientific facts in the history of eye transplantation.
Why is optic nerve recovery so difficult?
The optic nerve is no ordinary cable.
It contains a huge number of nerve fibers that connect the retina to various structures in the brain.
In an eye transplant, doctors can restore:
- the blood supply;
- the mechanical position of the eye;
- anatomical structures;
- part of the tissues;
- the functioning of the retina.
But this does not automatically mean that information from the retina can reach the brain in a functional way.
It is necessary for the nerve fibers to connect properly with the central nervous system and to restore the complex neural pathways.
This is one of the main reasons why Aaron James’ transplanted eye remained viable but did not restore vision.
The Great Human Eye Transplant Program
NYU Langone’s achievement sets the stage for larger-scale research.
In 2024, the US Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) launched the program Transplantation of Human Eye Allografts (THEA) with potential funding of up to US$132 million.
The goal is to develop methods for successful transplantation of a whole human eye, which in the future can restore vision. (ucihealth.org)
In 2025, NYU Langone also announced participation in a large-scale project with more than 40 scientists, physicians and industry representatives aimed at making whole-eye transplantation a possible vision-restoring therapy. (NYU Langone Health)
This shows that science no longer considers whole eye transplantation as a theoretical possibility.
Electronic artificial eye versus biological transplant
The two main approaches are fundamentally different.
The electronic artificial eye attempts to replace the function of the biological visual system through electronics, sensors, computational algorithms, and neurostimulation.
The transplantation of a whole eye tries to preserve the biological visual organ and restore its connection with the nervous system.
In the future, it is possible to combine these two approaches.
For example, a future system might include:
artificial optics → artificial retina → neural interface → optic nerve → brain
or:
camera → AI processing → brain implant → visual cortex
A third option is a biologically transplanted eye aided by regenerative medicine and optic nerve repair technologies.
What is missing from the modern artificial eye?
Despite tremendous progress, there is a fundamental difference between modern prosthetics and human vision.
The human eye and brain work as a single system.
The human retina performs complex pre-processing of visual information even before the signals reach the brain. The system has a huge dynamic range, adapts to lighting, detects motion, color and contrast and works continuously with extremely low power consumption.
Modern electronic prostheses cannot yet reproduce all this functionality.
In many of them, visual perception is limited to points of light, shapes, contours, or relatively low-resolution images.
PRIMA represents a significant step forward as it allows some patients to read text, but it also does not restore normal vision. (New England Journal of Medicine)
Can the artificial eye become better than the human eye?
From an engineering perspective, this is conceptually possible.
A future artificial vision system could potentially see in ranges beyond the human visible spectrum, for example in the near-infrared range.
She could have:
- optical or digital zoom;
- automatic boost in low light;
- infrared vision;
- ultra-wide field of view;
- AI object recognition;
- direct measurement of distances;
- image recording;
- wireless communication;
- adaptive optics.
In this sense, the future artificial eye can be not just a copy of the human eye, but a bionic vision system with capabilities that natural vision does not possess.
However, this is still a scientific and technological perspective, not a clinical reality.
The state of technology in 2026
As of September 2026, several different levels of development can be distinguished:
| Technology | Condition |
|---|---|
| Argus II | Historically proven retinal prosthesis; production is discontinued |
| PRIMA | Clinically proven technology to restore limited functional vision |
| Bionic Vision Technologies | Development of implantable systems for artificial vision |
| Orion | Development of a cortical visual prosthesis |
| THE-BRENA | High-resolution bio-inspired artificial retina/visual sensor |
| Whole eye transplant | Demonstrated in man, but without recovery of vision |
| A fully functional electronic artificial eye | Not yet achieved |
The next big frontier – the connection between the machine and the brain
The main problem is no longer just creating a camera that looks like a human eye.
Modern microelectronics can create extremely sensitive visual sensors. The new hemispherical sensors can even mimic the geometry of the retina and process visual information directly in the sensor. (Nature)
The real challenge is creating the neural interface, which can reliably translate the electronic image into neural signals understandable by the human brain.
This requires an understanding not only of optics, but also of:
- neurophysiology;
- neural coding;
- synaptic processing;
- brain plasticity;
- the regeneration of nerve tissue;
- biocompatible materials;
- microelectronics;
- artificial intelligence.
That is why the artificial eye is much more than a simple camera placed in the human orbit.
Conclusion
The development of artificial vision in recent decades has shown remarkable progress.
Argus II proved that an electronic system could create artificial visual perception. PRIMA took another big step by demonstrating restoration of functional central vision in a subset of patients with severe macular degeneration. Cortical systems like Orion are looking for a way to bypass the damaged eye and directly interact with the brain. Meanwhile, new bio-inspired artificial retinas, such as THE-BRENA, published in 2026, show how quickly visual sensor technology itself is evolving. (New England Journal of Medicine)
In parallel, the first transplant of a whole human eye showed that it is possible to transplant the eye organ itself and remain viable, but restoring vision requires successfully restoring the extremely complex connection between the eye and the brain. (NYU Langone Health)
Therefore to 2026, there is still no artificial eye that can completely replace the human eye and restore normal human vision.
But the scientific picture is already different from ten or twenty years ago.
Today, scientists have working retinal prostheses, artificial retinas, brain interfaces, high-resolution bio-inspired visual sensors, and the first proven case of a transplanted whole human eye.
The next big step will be to bring these technologies together into a single system that doesn’t just perceive light, but turns light into full-fledged visual perception understandable by the human brain.
Then the artificial eye will no longer be just a prosthesis.
It will be a new type bionic vision organ.
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