Technology Review: Emerging Technologies and their Impact: "Encouraging neurons in the retina to grow dendrites into silicon-based eye implants could help make retinal prosthetics a reality. The dendrites grown in a controlled zigzag pattern (bottom) shown across an array of much larger vertical electrodes (top). (Courtesy of Neville Mehenti, Stanford University.)

The use of implanted retina chips to restore vision is still some way off. But scientists have taken a significant step toward that goal by finding a way to trigger the firing of individual retinal cells, by growing them on a silicon-based eye implant. The research represents a key step in making artificial vision considerably better and more natural than current methods used for prosthetic retinas."