Australian bionic eye researchers fear a lack of funding will force them to drop one of the most promising research projects in their quest to restore vision to the blind.
As the federal government calls for submissions on how to improve the country's commercialisation of research, Bionic Vision Australia has had to prioritise its focus. It will now concentrate on low-vision prototypes.
Their holy grail - a high-acuity bionic eye that would allow the blind to read large print and recognise faces - is likely to be shelved within months as there is not enough funding to get through trial stage.
"We're just about to fall into the valley of death," said Melbourne University physics professor Steven Prawer, head of materials development for the high-acuity bionic eye.
"That's where governments abandon research because they consider the research to be done, and don't recognise the need to support the researchers over the valley of death and into the commercial world."
According to a discussion paper on boosting the commercial returns from research, released by the federal government and open for submissions until Friday, Australia's low rate of capitalising on publicly funded research is due to an "insufficient transfer of knowledge between researchers and business".
Australia ranks second last and last out of 30 OECD countries for the proportion of large, small and medium businesses collaborating with universities and research institutes on innovation.
Federal funding for the bionic eye project is set to run out next year. However, Professor Prawer said for business to back the project, researchers had to prove they had a product - and that meant getting the funds to push the device through testing.
"We will hobble along for the next six months and then the funding will finish," he said. "We will be left with fantastic technology on the shelf that hasn't had the opportunity to show its real capability."
The 256-electrode device uses artificial diamonds, which Professor Prawer said were capable of supporting more than 1000 electrodes.
In addition to being able to stimulate neural tissue, diamonds are also durable and when implanted are rarely rejected by the body.
Using diamonds for both stimulation and to encapsulate the chip of the bionic eye is a unique approach in the fiercely competitive global race to build a functional bionic eye.
"Our approach has a fighting chance of delivering the high-acuity that we don't think that other technologies will actually get to," Professor Prawer said, adding he wanted the device to be Australian-made.
The early prototype, a 24-electrode bionic eye, has been implanted into three Victorian patients, each blind for more than 20 years due to the inherited condition known as retinitis pigmentosa.
The device allowed patients to see blob-like shapes, flashes of light and identify shapes on a computer screen. However, it is nothing like regular vision - rather a low-resolution image of about 20 pixels.
Professor Prawer said with 256 electrodes in the high-acuity device, patients would be able have 256-pixel vision.
"We have done most of the testing that you can do on the bench," he said. "Now we have to demonstrate that it's safe and that we get the high acuity. We need the money to test it in animals in the first instance and then in people."
