INDY'S EYE EXPLAINED

 Dawn and Alastair have posted some photos on Indy's blog here.  I have taken the liberty of copying one photo and the text here to highlight the work that has been done to give Indy an artificial left eye.  Just look at the match in this latest photo! And furthermore, Dawn explains how the eye is fitted so that the prosthesis will move along with the other eye when it moves.  Amazing!

 

She says:

"Indy's prosthetic is really quite amazing.  If you were to meet him now you really could have a hard time telling which one is the real eye.  It's tracking along with his other eye quite well now and doesn't seem to be causing him any problems.

It seems there was some confusion about how it works so I thought I would write a post to clarify.

When they removed his eye they put in an implant, a sphere covered in a special porous surface that was surgically attached to his eye muscles.  His body won't reject it as it's made of a special material.  As it is surgically attached, he will live with this implant.  When he looks to the left, the muscles will move this implant as if it was an eye.  The implant is a pinkish color - you can see it at the top of this page, [i.e. the following photo]  covered by a see through "space keeper" which was put at the same time to hold the space for where a prosthetic would be added.

The prosthetic sits under the eyelids and over the implant and can be removed.   As the implant moves, it moves the prosthetic around, with about 60% of the motion.  When he's looking straight ahead both eyes look straight ahead (most of the time). I believe the prosthetic is made out of dental materials. The front was hand painted and is a really good match.  Even if you have a close look, the color and texture of the eye and iris are very similar."

Several days later ... here is another photo.  Look at how the two eyes are moving together!