The Basics of Sight: Light passes through the cornea and the pupil, refracting through the lens. The lens invert the image upside down and focus the light onto the retina where the photoreceptors (cones and rods) send the information to the brain via the optic nerve. The nerve passes through the optic chiasma to the brain.

What can cause blindness?

Astigmatism is a common eye disease which can blur your vision, strain your eyes, blur your vision, and can cause headaches. It can also accompany far and near sight. Astigmatism takes place when the cornea is shaped as an oval, causing light rays to focus on two points instead of one in the back of your eye since an eye with astigmatism would have a steep curve and a flat curve. These two curves are usually 180 degrees away from each other. Astigmatism can be hereditary since people can be born with an oval-shaped cornea, or it can be caused by a scarring of cornea. As of now, contact lenses and eye glasses are utilized to treat astigmatism.[1]

Keratoconus is an eye disease occurring in teens and twenty-year-old's where the cornea thins and forms a conic shape. This conic shape deflects light as it enters the eye and reaches the retina, causing distorted vision. As the cornea becomes more irregular, nearsightedness and astigmatism develops.

The weakening of corneal tissue causing keratoconus is due to the imbalance of enzymes in the cornea, causing the cornea to be more vulnerable to oxidative damage from compounds called free radicals, causing bulging and and weakening of the cornea. It can also be caused by eye rubbing, poorly fit contact lenses, and ultraviolet sun rays. Specific types of contact lenses and eye glasses can help treat keratoconus.[2]

In the present day, developments towards vision enhancements have not yet attempted to fully recreate the structure of the human eye. For instance the company Second Sight Medical Products Inc. has developed a product which is worn by the user like a pair of sunglasses. The glasses contain a camera which captures images and sends the image to a small processor where it is translated into an electronic signal to an electrode array. The electrode array stimulates the user's retina, which in turn sends information through the optic nerve to the brain. The brain then interprets the information as a visual pattern.[3]

However, this technology does not entirely replace the human eye, and does not appear similar to it in form. Our proposed design is based on technology that is currently being developed, and serves to replace the human eye entirely.