[thedoc (OP)]

A self-powering retinal implant that can turn light into sight has been successfully tested in rats.

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[evan_au]

This device was reported as only working in Infra-Red light, which is the bandgap of Silicon. This would be quite useful to a previously blind person who wanted to find their way in daylight (which has lots of IR).

However, light of shorter wavelengths (like visible light) is also able to activate electrons in Silicon, but depending on the location of the implanted device, visible light may be blocked by the retina (which has pigments to absorb red, green and blue light) and the blood vessels which provide oxygen to the retina.