Second Sight Medical Products

At a glance

Legal name

Second Sight Medical Products, Inc.verifiedSources (2)

1. Second Sight — Argus II FDA approval press releasehttps://www.retinafarpe.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/SecondSightFDAapproval.pdf2013-02-14
2. FDA HDE H110002 — Argus II Retinal Prosthesis Systemhttps://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfhde/hde.cfm?id=h1100022013-02-14

Updated: 2026-05-04

Aliases

—unknownUpdated: 2026-05-04

Type

defunctverifiedSource

1. IEEE Spectrum — bionic eyes obsoletehttps://spectrum.ieee.org/bionic-eye-obsolete

Updated: 2026-05-04

Focus areas

medical-implant, neurostimulation, prosthetic, therapeuticverifiedSources (2)

1. Second Sight — Argus II FDA approval press releasehttps://www.retinafarpe.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/SecondSightFDAapproval.pdf2013-02-14
2. FDA HDE H110002 — Argus II Retinal Prosthesis Systemhttps://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfhde/hde.cfm?id=h1100022013-02-14

Updated: 2026-05-04

Founded

1998verifiedSources (2)

1. Bionic-vision.org — Second Sight company profilehttps://www.bionic-vision.org/companies/second-sight
2. Wikipedia — Argus retinal prosthesishttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argus_retinal_prosthesis

Updated: 2026-05-04

Defunct

2022verifiedSource

1. IEEE Spectrum — bionic eyes obsoletehttps://spectrum.ieee.org/bionic-eye-obsolete

Updated: 2026-05-04

Spinout of

—unknownUpdated: 2026-05-04

HQ city

SylmarverifiedSources (2)

1. Second Sight — Argus II FDA approval press releasehttps://www.retinafarpe.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/SecondSightFDAapproval.pdf2013-02-14
2. Bionic-vision.org — Second Sight company profilehttps://www.bionic-vision.org/companies/second-sight

Updated: 2026-05-04

HQ country

USverifiedSource

1. Second Sight — Argus II FDA approval press releasehttps://www.retinafarpe.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/SecondSightFDAapproval.pdf2013-02-14

Updated: 2026-05-04

Employees

—unknownUpdated: 2026-05-04

Flagship device

second-sight-argus-2verifiedSource

1. FDA HDE H110002 — Argus II Retinal Prosthesis Systemhttps://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfhde/hde.cfm?id=h1100022013-02-14

Updated: 2026-05-04

Product lines

1verifiedSource

1. FDA HDE H110002 — Argus II Retinal Prosthesis Systemhttps://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfhde/hde.cfm?id=h1100022013-02-14

Updated: 2026-05-04

In-house manufacturing

YesverifiedSource

1. FDA HDE H110002 — Argus II Retinal Prosthesis Systemhttps://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfhde/hde.cfm?id=h1100022013-02-14

Updated: 2026-05-04

Open source

NoverifiedSource

1. Second Sight — Argus II FDA approval press releasehttps://www.retinafarpe.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/SecondSightFDAapproval.pdf2013-02-14

Updated: 2026-05-04

GitHub org

—unknownUpdated: 2026-05-04

Website

—unknownSource

1. Second Sight site retired post-Vivani merger

Updated: 2026-05-04

Blog

—unknownUpdated: 2026-05-04

Support

—unknownUpdated: 2026-05-04

Devices

• invasiveretinal-stim

  Argus II

  second-sight

  60 channelsUSD 150,000

People

MilestonesverifiedSources (4)

1. Bionic-vision.org — Second Sight company profilehttps://www.bionic-vision.org/companies/second-sight
2. Wikipedia — Argus retinal prosthesishttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argus_retinal_prosthesis
3. FDA HDE H110002 — Argus II Retinal Prosthesis Systemhttps://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfhde/hde.cfm?id=h1100022013-02-14
4. IEEE Spectrum — bionic eyes obsoletehttps://spectrum.ieee.org/bionic-eye-obsolete

Updated: 2026-05-04

1. 1998

   Second Sight founded in Sylmar, CA

2. 2002

   Argus I first-in-human trial begins (6 subjects)

3. 2011

   Argus II receives CE mark in Europe

4. 2013-02-14

   Argus II FDA HDE approval (H110002)

5. 2019-07-18

   Argus II discontinued

   Second Sight phases out the retinal implant; ongoing patients report loss of technical support.

6. 2022

   Merger with Nano Precision Medical → Vivani Medical (NASDAQ:VANI)

Reputation

Pioneering but commercially troubled. The 2019 abandonment of Argus II patients (no support, no replacement parts) was widely covered in industry press as a cautionary tale about the lifecycle obligations of implant manufacturers.