Bionic Eye Helps Man See For The First Time In 10 Years (VIDEO)

Allen Zderad of Minnesota saw his wife for the first time in 10 years. The 68-year-old man has retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative, genetic eye disease that affects how light that hits the retina translates into sight.

Zderad is the 15th person to receive the "Second Sight Argus II" retinal prosthesis system, which was just approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in January 2014. The technology is rather expensive at $300 to $500 million to develop and took about 25 years to make.

"It's a bionic eye- in every sense of the word," Rayond Iezzi, the Mayo Clinic retinal surgeon ophthalmologist who chose Zderad as the first Minnesotan to receive the bionic eye, said via Valley News Live. "It's not a replacement for the eyeball, but it works with interacting with the eye.

"Mankind has been seeking to cure blindness for 2,000 years or more," Iezzi added, "but only in the past quarter of a century have we had the electronics and the packaging and all the other things come together to build a retinal prosthesis that could restore sight to the blind."

This is not the first time the device has made headlines. In October, in fact, 66-year-old Larry Hester who also dealt with retinitis pigmentosa received the implantable device via Duke Medicine.

"The light is so basic and probably wouldn't have significance for anybody else, but to me it's meaning I can see light and we can go from here," Hester said, via CBS News.

Patrick Finnerty of Second Sight Medical Products helped to develop the device, and told Duke Medicine that the bionic eye provides a "pixilated type of vision."

"The patient essentially has to try to determine what those flashes of light mean, and in many cases it can help them determine where a window is, light coming in through the window or where a doorway is, essentially help them navigate the world around them."

Want to see Zderad also see for the first time in 10 years? Check out this video, courtesy of the Mayo Clinic.