A new bionic chip – that works by surgically implanting a 2mm wide microchip under the centre of retina – has been used for the first time in the UK.

The chip captures video through a pair of special glasses that is attached to a computer stored in the glasses’ waistband. This computer then uses AI algorithms to process the captured footage to guide the focus of the glasses.

Finally, the glasses project the captured image through the eye to the chip which transforms it into an electrical signal which the brain can interpret as if it were natural vision.

The 88-year-old grandmother who received the geographic atrophy microchip implant did so as part of a Europe-wide clinical trial for the device.

Geographic atrophy – which causes a blind spot to develop in the middle of the eye – is the most common form of dry-age related macular degeneration (AMD) and affects over five million people.

“Losing the sight in my left eye through dry AMD has stopped me from doing the things I love, like gardening, playing indoor bowls and painting with watercolours,” said the recipient.

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Research into the geographic atrophy microchip is supported by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology.

The device “offers hope” to those suffering from AMD conditions, according to Mahi Muqit, consultant vitreoretinal surgeon at Moorfields Eye Hospital.

He said: “The success of this operation, and the evidence gathered through this clinical study, will provide the evidence to determine the true potential of this treatment.”

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