Doctors at Oxford University made medical history recently by successfully completing the first robot-assisted intraocular surgery. The R2D2, developed by Dutch medical robotics firm Preceyes BV, is designed to perform keyhole surgery, entering and exiting the eyeball through a single, sub-millimeter hole. What's more, it's built to be exceedingly steady, especially given the tight tolerances within which it works. It employs a series of seven, independently computer controlled motors to navigate within the eye and can move as little as 1/1000th of a millimeter at a time. This is done to eliminate any semblance of tremors in the surgeon's hands -- including even the most minute tics like those generated by the doctor's own heartbeat. Machines that are capable of making precise operations inside the human eye will make it possible to perform entirely new procedures.