It's taken until this year, 2014, for patients to receive the first FDA-approved bionic eyes. This breakthrough comes via Second Sight, a California company whose Argus II technology revolves around implanting patients with an artificial retina.

As of now, only people with severe cases of retinitis pigmentosa qualify to receive a bionic eye. Among them is Lisa Kulik, who shares with Business Insider her story of what it meant to begin losing her sight as a young woman, and how now, decades later, she's relearning to see again.