I wrote an article on bionic eyes a few years ago and I think the same technology could be used to send computer images directly to the brain.

An implant is interfaced with the optic nerve by making lots of tiny electrical connections to the axons of the nerves. The more connections, the better the image received by the visual cortex.

The implant recieves wireless signals from an external device and encodes the signal in stimulation of the axons of the optic nerve. In the case of the bionic eye the source of the images is a camera worn on a pair of glasses, the signal relayed through a transmitter worn in the breast pocket.

I don't see any reason why the wireless signal couldn't contain computer images instead. The only issue, at least at the time when I researched the article for Audi Magazine, was that the number of connections was too few to produce a very good quality image.

Can anyone expand on this though? I don't know the current state of affairs and I'd be interested to find out more about how the nerve impulses are generated accurately. Similarly, I might be on completely the wrong track - is there another way that computer images can be piped directly into the brain?

Kat, the sensor doesn't have to be on a pair of glasses and there doesn't have to be only one sensor - if the technology works it should be possible to have an eye on the back of the head as well as the front, and to switch between them as required. It would be horribly disorientating though and I expect you'd spend half your life sea-sick.

Asxz, the brain doesn't feel nerve impulses as electrical current, even though that is (kind of) what they are. A change in electrical potential propagates along a nerve and this is how signals are received by the brain from the various sensors e.g. eyes, ears, etc. that feed into it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/8587202.stm