Thanks to advancements in medical technology, scientists are edging closer to restoring sight to the blind.

Surgeons have successfully implanted a visual stimulator chip within a patient’s brain, bypassing the eye completely. The 30-year-old woman who underwent the surgery was blind for seven years due to a rare disease called Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome.

The stimulator chip was placed on the surface of the brain, along with a small antenna receiver inserted into the gap of the skull. This antenna interacts with the implanted device by receiving signals sent from a computer unit.

Throughout the entire six weeks of post-procedure testing, the patient saw spots, lines, and flashes of color directly matching the wireless signals sent by the scientists. These signals were specifically sent to her visual cortex, the region of the brain responsible for visual information processing.

In the near future, her surgeons hope to send video footage from a small camera to the implanted chip. The camera will be embedded in a pair of eyeglasses, enabling them to send moving images directly to the brain from a system called the Orion I. Physicians at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) are currently waiting for permission from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to connect the visual stimulator chip to the worn camera.

Chairman for Second Site, Dr. Robert Greenberg, said in an interview to The Daily Mail, “It is rare that technological development offers such stirring possibilities. By bypassing the optic nerve and directly stimulating the visual cortex, the Orion I has the potential to restore vision to patients blinded due to virtually any reason, including glaucoma, cancer, diabetic retinopathy, or trauma.”

If the Orion I technology comes to fruition, millions across the globe could have their sight restored. Learn the conceptual overview of the Orion I in the diagram below.