![]() The electric signals stimulate the optic nerve and communicate information to the brain. Originally funded through a AU$50 million research grant from the Australian Research Council, and led by Bionic Vision Australia, the bionic vision system includes a pair of special glasses that send signals or images to a device placed on the retina. “That’s what we’re trying to do, in a sense, with the bionic eye.” “Those signals are communicated to his brain by neural implants he has on either side of his head on his temples. “Geordi wears a visor and that picks up all sorts of signals, from visible light to exotic particles,” Professor Prawer says. In presentations on the the bionic eye, Professor Prawer, a self-described sci-fi fan, uses the story of Geordi La Forge, the blind character played by Levar Burton in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Here are five ways researchers are pushing the boundaries of scientific discovery – turning science fiction into science fact. “The job of a scientist – my job now – is to turn these ideas into reality.” Three ways we're 'making friends' with robots Clarke talking about satellites or Jules Verne’s trip the moon – these things have been very influential in imagining what might be,” Professor Prawer says. “So many ideas have actually come from science fiction,” says Steven Prawer, Professor of Physics at the University of Melbourne and chief technology officer of iBIONICS, a company developing a diamond-based bionic eye. Science fiction has often blurred the line between robot and human. The Jetsons, the 1960s cartoon family, even had a little robot vacuum cleaner, not unlike today’s Roomba. ![]() The crew on Star Trek: The Next Generationused an electronic tablet called a PADD. Jules Verne’s 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon tells the story of three men who use a space gun to shoot themselves to the moon. ![]() ![]() It’s no wonder then that so much of the technology available today was first created in science fiction. It is the work of science fiction writers to imagine future worlds and expand the scope of what we think is possible. ![]()
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