Back in 2025 Vereserum made big waves in the news with the announcement of their Ceremplant chip. Developed by their injectables division, the small chip was designed to offer hope to millions of people worldwide suffering from severe visual impairments. The device worked by taking in visual information through tiny connections directly from the eye, or through a kind of “nose antenna” in some cases, and processing that information directly into the visual centers of the brain. Better yet, the Ceremplant was piezoelectrically powered by the vibration of the tiny bones in the human ear and natural body movements. Once it was implanted it never needed to be removed for a battery change.
The Ceremplant represented a huge step forward in a number of technologies and was fast tracked through FDA testing. Initial results were amazing. Its size and method of implantation meant that it could be installed in a doctor’s office by a trained professional, eliminating more costly and dangerous medical procedures. Virtually all subjects regained at least some visual capabilities with most getting back full 20/20 vision.
Vereserum’s invention was a huge medical breakthrough but it was ironically undone by yet another medical breakthrough, personalized DNA medicine. Companies like Reparre Biologics had been hard at work perfecting new stem-cell therapy techniques and had just finished their own FDA trials. Their advances made the Ceremplant obsolete before it was ever through testing. The stem-cell medicine was cheaper, safer, and more effective for around 90% of patients.
While there were still thousands suffering from cortical visual impairment (CVI) who could be helped by the injectable technology, its future was not going to be as widespread as Vereserum hoped, and the company all but discontinued research and development. The future of the technology seemed bleak until a few years ago when the body modification and bio-hacking community started showing interest. Now it seems that the implant’s future is brighter than ever, even if some say that future is a frivolous one.
Veresrum opened the code to their 1st generation Ceremplant soon after cutting off funding, and that’s when the bio-hackers started to experiment with the technology. Within a few months members of the community had created a Ceremplant that offered a real-time overlay of your surroundings with street addresses. Soon after, someone added a business review feature. Then a social app popped up, and the ball kept rolling. A full software suite now exist for the Ceremplant including a rudimentary facial recognition program, image editing software, messaging services, and chess. All of this created by passionate enthusiasts who keep coming up with new features and uses everyday.
The buzz is so big in fact, that Vereserum has announced plans to restart their own program again, even if some inside the company seem less than thrilled with what their technology has become.
“At one time the Ceremplant represented hope for millions. A visually disabled person could have their life forever changed in a half hour thanks to
our technology. Now our implant is associated with wifi-broadcasting-gauged ears, and implanted LED horns. People are using it to have pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less. While I’m impressed with some of the innovations, and glad that the chips are being used again, I wish they weren’t being squandered on such inconsequential matters,” says Vereserum CTO Ryan Mandal.
Not everyone thinks pizza acquisition is a meaningless pursuit however. Local bio-hacker Ano Lee has created what he calls “the most advance pizza procurement system known to man” using a Ceremplant. Ano’s system monitors brain activity and targets toppings and crust options that receive the most attention and places an order automatically. “One of the biggest problems with ordering pizza is trying to decide what you want on it. My Perfect Pizza program takes all the guess work out of it and places the order for you.”
Using the implants to identify injured people and transmit medical or financial records are almost certain according to enthusiasts. They think it may be possible to record memories one day, and even play them back. Ano and many others say that the future of the technology is almost limitless. “I believe that you could even store all the memories and biological information about a person in a Ceremplant one day. Just think, everything that makes you, you, would be on something the size of a grain of rice. If you can think it you can do it with one of these,” he says.
