Why it’s Breakthrough: It’s an implant that can help restore vision to those who are either losing it, or who have lost it, and though it’s still in the early stages, researchers are pinning high hopes to this game-changer.

The Story: Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, whose government committed $42 Australian dollars (almost $39 million US) to the project, said the device could be “one of the most important medical advances we see in our lifetime”.

“The bionic eye project will keep Australia at the forefront of bionic research and commercialization and has the potential to restore sight to thousands of people in Australia and across the world,” he said.

The device, part of which is surgically implanted in the eye, is designed for patients suffering from degenerative vision loss caused by the genetic condition retinitis pigmentosa or age-related macular degeneration.

It consists of a miniature camera, mounted on glasses, that captures images and sends them to a processor the wearer keeps in their pocket. The processor then transmits a signal wirelessly to a unit implanted in the eye which will directly stimulate surviving neurons in the retina, signaling an image to the brain.

Those using the bionic eye will not have perfect vision restored, but it is hoped they will be able to perceive points of light in their field of vision which the brain can then reconstruct into an image. Research director of Bionic Vision Australia, the university and research institute partnership which has produced the prototype, said the device could change people’s lives.

“We anticipate that this retinal implant will provide users with increased mobility and independence, and that future versions of the implant will eventually allow recipients to recognize faces and read large print,”Professor Anthony Burkitt said.

Kevin Murfitt, chairman of the country’s biggest service for the blind and visually impaired Vision Australia, said the bionic eye “will be the next big remarkable invention”.

“This is truly a revolution and will be the biggest thing in terms of blindness and low vision since Louis Braille invented the Braille alphabet over 200 years ago,” he told ABC radio.

The bionic eye is undergoing tests ahead of the first human implant in 2013.