“Bionic Woman” starts with eye implant

Using the Internet as a public request form, a California woman is looking
to have a miniature video camera implanted in her prosthetic eye



Scleral shell designed by William Danz
Source: Jonathan James

“I am attempting to recreate my eye with the help of a miniature camera implant in my prosthetic/artificial eye. The intraocular installation of an eye-cam will substitute for the field of vision of my left eye that I lost in 2005 from a car accident. While my prosthesis is an excellent aesthetic replacement, I am interested in capitalizing on the current advancement of technology to enhance the abilities of my prosthesis for an augmented reality.”
No, that is not the introduction to NBC’s 2007 version of the television series Bionic Woman; it is the public request for engineers posted by a California woman trying to have a miniature video camera implanted in her prosthetic eye.
Following her severe auto accident, Tanya Vlach, 35, San Francisco, managed to escape with only a ruptured left eye in 2005.
But not being one to be satisfied living with a disability, Ms. Vlach saw this as an opportunity to improve herself and she began to research existing biotechnology and cybernetics as a way to fix injuries and replace body parts.
“Honestly I was thinking about ways to fix, replace, or recreate my eye pretty early on—even before my prosthetic,” she said. “I had started asking my ophthalmologist questions about the bionic eye a couple months after I lost my eye. A couple of years later when I seemed to have exhausted all my traditional options in the medical field, I decided to pursue a miniature video camera.”

Internet-assisted technology search

“I’m a sci-fi geek, what can I say,” Ms. Vlach stated. “I watched Star Trek: The Next Generation religiously; I read Philip K. Dick and William Gibson. The new version of the Bionic Woman came out around the same time that the idea was percolating in my head.”
So while many would dismiss the idea of a video camera implantation as a science-fiction pipe dream, Ms. Vlach was predisposed to such innovations.
In fact, she had studied in school how science fiction had predicted inventions almost a century before they were invented.
Then she saw a video on www.youtube.com that depicted a simulation of an eye-drive that could upload into a camera, causing her to realize that others had been thinking along similar lines already. She concluded that it would not be that much of a challenge to build a camera that could be implanted inside her prosthesis using the pupil as a lens.
“Then the artificial eye would no longer just be aesthetic, it would be a functional device as close to a working eye that I could get,” Ms. Vlach said.
To aid her search for engineers that could make this idea a reality, Ms. Vlach created a Web site, http://tanyavlach.wordpress.com/, which included a call for engineers to submit their proposals.
In response, she said about half of the comments generated from the Web site were engineers’ proposals, and the other half “were other one-eyeds rooting me on, and some who offered themselves up as guinea pigs for the project!”
For example, this was one of the messages she received: “I lost my right eye in Iraq and I think it is awesome what you are doing! You go girl!!!! I hope it all works out for you. It is an awesome way to pave the way in technology.”

Technological, financial challenges

Ms. Vlach’s prosthetic was created by William A. Danz, BCO, BADO, FASO, whose great-great-grandfather invented the glass prosthetic in Germany.
Her prosthetic is 8 mm thick below the iris, and the scleral shell, which is made from polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) is 21-23 mm long. The iris is 12.25 mm in diameter, and the pupil is 4.5 mm in diameter.
She said she consulted with Dr. Danz about her project, and at first he was unsure about it. But now he is a collaborator, and he will be hollowing and designing the scleral shell that will house the eye camera.
“It seemed to me that he decided that he wanted to participate in creating the future of the prosthetic eye,” Ms. Vlach said. “I’m thrilled to work with him.”
So far, in addition to Dr. Danz, she said she has selected an engineer as the project manager and together, they are in the process of selecting other engineering applicants who are experts in the necessary technology to be on the team.
The team currently is speculating a deadline for a first generation eye-cam—a working prototype to be debuted in the fall.
“I’m working with a filmmaker, and I will be performing in an interactive art piece in the New York MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) this fall,” she said. “What I will see with my eye-cam will be uploadable or streamed online as a component during the performance.”
Other than figuring how to make the technology work, the other side of the equation is funding the project.
Ms. Vlach said she recently won an appeal from Social Security Income (SSI) to help pay her medical debt from the accident, and after it is processed, she will have broken about even thus far.
Still, she is seeking donations for the project, both financial and expertise. “We continue to welcome ideas and collaborators who are experts in this field,” Ms. Vlach said.

Contact information

Vlach: tanyavlach@gmail.com