Second Sight Medical’s Argus II Recognized by Popular Science Magazine

Second Sight Medical Products Inc., a developer of retinal prostheses for the blind is this year’s recipient of Popular Science magazine’s “Invention of the Year Award” for its Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System.

Each year, the editors of Popular Science review thousands of products in search of the top 100 technology innovations of the year—breakthrough products and technologies that represent a significant leap in their categories.

The winners, the Best of What’s New, are awarded inclusion in the much-anticipated December issue of the magazine, the most widely read issue of the year since the debut of Best of What’s New in 1988. Best of What’s New awards are presented to 100 new products and technologies in 12 categories: Automotive, Aviation, Computing, Engineering, Gadgets, Green, Entertainment, Security, Software, Home, Health and Recreation.

Argus II not only made the best of what’s new list, but took top honor in Health, and was deemed the invention of the year for 2013.

“We are extremely honored to receive this award from Popular Science,” said Robert Greenberg, M.D., Ph.D., president and CEO of Sylmar, Calif.-based Second Sight. “We look forward to sharing our innovation with the many people with advanced Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) as we prepare for our official launch here in the U.S.”

“For more than a quarter century, Popular Science has devoted its December issue to the year’s most remarkable innovations. The Best of What’s New Awards is our magazine’s top honor, and the 100 awardees are selected from a pool of thousands. Each winner is handpicked and revolutionary in its own way. Whether they’re poised to change the world or simply your living room, the Best of What’s New awardees challenge us to the see the future in a new light,” said Cliff Ransom, executive editor of Popular Science.

The Argus II System works by converting video images captured by a miniature camera housed in the patient’s glasses into a series of small electrical pulses that are transmitted wirelessly to an array of electrodes on the surface of the retina. These pulses are intended to stimulate the retina’s remaining cells, resulting in the corresponding perception of patterns of light in the brain. The patient then learns to interpret these visual patterns, thereby regaining some visual function.

The Argus II, which received FDA approval earlier this year under a Humanitarian Device Exemption following European CE mark in 2011, is intended to help the most severely affected RP patients. In the United States, this includes patients with bare light perception or worse vision. U.S. launch is expected before the end of the year, while the device has been available in Europe and the Middle East for nearly two years.