Yeah, this would be for blindness that's upstream from the nerve, for instance an opsin deficiency or something that makes the light-sensitive cells in the reti

Yeah, this would be for blindness that's upstream from the nerve, for instance an opsin deficiency or something that makes the light-sensitive cells in the retina not work. The underlying (actually overlying since the retina is kind of inside-out) nervous network might still function fine, it just doesn't have an input. The photovoltaic dots would create a very small localized charge that would stimulate the higher-level cells rather than the rods and cones.