People with a leading cause of blindness were able to read again thanks to a tiny wireless chip implanted in the back of the eye and specialized augmented glasses, according to study results published Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The trial involved 38 European patients, all of whom had an advanced stage of dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) known as geographic atrophy.

There is no cure for AMD, which is driven by changes in a part of the retina called the macula and caused by inflammation and a build-up of waste. The photoreceptor cells in the macula are responsible for producing sharp, detailed and colored vision. When the disease has progressed to the geographic atrophy stage, these cells deteriorate and die, and people lose their central vision — meaning that

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