Blind patients given a pioneering retinal implant have managed to receive and decipher pictures sent from a video camera.

The artificial implant receives visual signals then converts them into an "image" which is transmitted into remaining healthy retinal cells via 16 electrodes.

So far patients, in the first trials of the device, have been able to distinguish between everyday objects such as a cup or a plate.

However, they have not yet "seen" these objects entirely through their own eyes - the pictures are taken by a video camera then sent to the implant.

The results were presented at the meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology in the US.

Only three patients have so far received the implants, which measure four millimetres by five.

At first, patients were asked if they could "see" computer generated images sent to the implant.

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