A Canadian brain surgeon is sharing the glory in the development of one of the world's first artificial eyes.

It is a development that was considered impossible just a few years ago.

Researchers in New York City say a blind 62-year-old volunteer can now read large letters and navigate around big objects by using a tiny camera wired to computers and a platinum electrode implanted in his brain.

John Girvin, a neurosurgery (brain surgery) professor in London, Ontario is the doctor who implanted the electrodes in the patient's brain at the New York Neurological Institute in 1979. It was part of an international research effort to develop artificial sight.

Although the research began in 1970, it's taken all these years to develop computers small and powerful enough to process the camera images and send them to the brain.

"When we first did those experiments, it would have taken a room full of computers to process the image," says Girvin. "Now it's small enough for him to carry around on a little pack."

Although the research began in 1970, it's taken all these years to develop computers small and powerful enough to process the camera images and send them to the brain.

"When we first did those experiments, it would have taken a room full of computers to process the image," says Girvin. "Now it's small enough for him to carry around on a little pack."

Jerry - the name of the patient - doesn't see images. He perceives specks of light that appear and disappear as his field of vision shifts.

But that was enough to help him locate a blackstocking cap hanging on a white wall and place it on the head of a mannequin in a recent demonstration.

He also recognized a five-centimetre-tall letter from 1.5 metres away.

The blind patient wears glasses with a tiny camera mounted on one lens and an ultrasonic rangefinder on the other. Both devices communicate with the small computer carried on the man's hip.

The computer sends signals to small electrodes on the surface of Jerry's brain, using wires entering his skull behind his right ear. It looks like something you would see in a science fiction film.

The electrodes stimulate certain brain cells, allowing Jerry to perceive the specks of light.

Girvin said the artifician eye has ``great potential,'' but it's hard to predict how fast it can be perfected to something more like real sight.

`` The technology is available now. Something could be done one with it in a very few years, but it would take an enormous amount of money and an enormous scientific team."

1. Who is sharing the glory in the development of one of the world's first artificial eyes?