Lloyd was able to receive his Argus II way back in 2007 and Ron has had his since at least 2009, so you might think that the public would have had access to the artificial retina implant much sooner than this winter. Developing a group of Argus II-equipped patients large enough for a test study, however, took some time. Each of the remarkable headsets runs about $1 million, so shelling out the abosolute minimum of 30 units cost Argus' developers at Second Sight quite the pretty penny.

Thankfully the study has now been successfully completed, finding that patients equipped with Argus II are twice as likely to detect complex shapes as those who did not. The result allowed the Argus II to be approved as a humanitarian device, meaning it's safe to use and does in fact help those who wear it to see.