Elon Musk’s brain-chip startup Neuralink’s experimental implant aimed at restoring vision received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s “breakthrough device” designation.
- The FDA’s breakthrough tag is given to certain medical devices that provide treatment or diagnosis of life-threatening conditions.
- It is aimed at speeding up development and review of devices currently under development.
- The experimental device is known as Blindsight. As per Musk, the device will enable even those who have lost both eyes and their optic nerve to see.
- Neuralink was founded in 2016 by Musk and a group of engineers.
- Neuralink is building a brain chip interface that can be implanted within the skull, which it says could eventually help disabled patients to move and communicate again, and also restore vision.
- Neuralink’s device has a chip that processes and transmits neural signals that could be transmitted to devices like a computer or a phone.
