Vision prosthesis

The restoration of vision has captivated the imagination of man since biblical times. Now, after 4 decades of modern research, beginning with the stimulation of the visual cortex by Giles Brindley in 1966 [75], visual prostheses are making the transition from basic science research to commercialization. William Dobelle, Ph.D. achieved similar results using cortical stimulation to evoke phospheses in 1974 [76,77], and he was a pioneer in the drive to commercialize the visual cortex prosthesis. In 1983, he acquired Avery Labs, a manufacturer of electrodes for brain stimulation. From this and other ventures he derived funds to advance his vision prosthesis research and developments efforts at the Dobelle Institute, located in Portugal. An excellent historical review is provided in this volume by Greenberg. 

R.A. Green, L.A. Poole-Warren, and N.H. Lovell. Novel neural interface for vision prosthesis electrodes Improving electrical and mechanical properties through layering. In Proceedings of the 3rd International IEEE EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering, Kohala Coast, Hawaii, USA (2007). 

Implantable medical devices have been widely used to restore body functions, improve the quality of life, or save lives. Experts estimate that 8 to 10 percent of all Americans (some 20 million to 25 million people) [1], or about 1 in 17 people in industrialized countries [2], carry some form of implanted device. Many medical devices, such as the implantable cardiac defibrillator, cochlear implant, artificial vision prosthesis, neuromuscular microstimulator, and the like contain sophisticated electronic circuits. Such long-term implantable medical devices are susceptible to damage by body fluids over time. Hermetic packaging is required to protect the electronic circuitry of the implant from the harsh environment of the human body. 

Vanhoestenberghe A, Donaldson N, Lovell N, Suaning G (2008) Hermetic encapsulation of an implantable vision prosthesis - combining implant fabrication philosophies. In IFESS 2008 -from movement to mind, URL http //discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1318417/... 

On February 19, 2000, the inaugural symposium of the Alfred Mann Institute-University of Southern California (AMl-USC) titled, Can We Make the Blind See — Prospects for Restoring Vision to the Blind was held. The list of lecturers included Dean Baker Director of the AMI-USC Gerald Loeb, a FES researcher at the AMl-USC Dean Bok, a retinal physiologist from UCLA Retinal prosthesis researchers — Robert Greenberg, Mark Humayun, Joseph Rizzo, John Wyatt, and Alan Chow Cortical prosthesis researchers —Richard Normann and Philip Troyk and Dana Ballard, a visual psychophysicist from the University of Rochester. 

Humayun MS, Weiland JD, Fuji GY et al (2003) Visual perception in a blind subject with a chronic microelectronic retinal prosthesis. Vision Research 43 2573-2581. 

Zrenner E (2002) Will retinal implants restore vision Science 295(5557) 1022—1025 Maynard EM (2001) Visual prostheses. Annu Rev Biomed Eng 3 145-168 Greenberg RJ (2000) Visual prostheses A Review. Neuromodulation 3(3) 161-165 Weiland JD, Humayun MS (2008) Visual prosthesis. Proc IEEE 96 1076-1084 Margaht E, Maia M, Weiland JD et al (2002) Retinal prosthesis for the blind. Surv Ophthalmol 47 335-356... 

James Weiland is an associate professor in the Department of Ophthalmology at the Doheny Eye Institute at the University of Southern California. He is interested in technology to assist the blind, and the main focus of his research is an implantable retinal prosthesis. His research group investigates the interface between the retina and the implantable stimulator in order to optimize the visual abilities of patients. They are also developing wearable computer vision systems for aiding blind people. 

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