A new bionic eye being developed at Monash University will help thousand of blind people to see light and shapes for the first time.

World-first wireless technology and a computer processor, implanted in the brain, helps the blind to determine shapes through a series of mapping dots after they wear a pair of sunglasses, News.com.au reported.

The gadget takes information from a glasses-mounted camera and sends it, via a wireless transmitter, to the brain.

This vision takes the form of basic shapes made of light - similar to looking at a line of stars.

Bluesky Design Group director Professor Mark Armstrong, who was earlier involved in the designing the Nexus 5 Cochlear Implant for the deaf, said that they hoped to do first human trial by mid next year.

Armstrong asserted that the new technique will allow the blind to see edges of tables and footpath in a coarse, dot-type matrix, which will be enough to give them mobility.

The implant - about the size of a fingernail - has a similar processing power to a smartphone.

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