The U.S. Patent office just issued patent number 8,000,000 to three Southern California inventors. The patent is directed to a visual prosthesis comprising a camera for capturing a video image, a video processing unit configured to convert the video image to stimulation patterns, and a retinal stimulation system.
It has only been five years since Patent number 7,000,000 issued. It took thirty years to get from patent 4,000,000 to 7,000,000. Clearly the rate at which patents are being issued is accelerating.
