Retinal implants can give artificial vision to the blind

[Jim__]

From MedicalXpress

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Restoring eyesight has always been one of the biggest challenges for scientists. Diego Ghezzi, who holds the Medtronic Chair in Neuroengineering (LNE) at EPFL's School of Engineering, has made this issue a research focus. Since 2015, he and his team have been developing a retinal implant that works with camera-equipped smart glasses and a microcomputer. "Our system is designed to give blind people a form of artificial vision by using electrodes to stimulate their retinal cells," says Ghezzi.

The camera embedded in the smart glasses captures images in the wearer's field of vision, and sends the data to a microcomputer placed in one of the eyeglasses' end-pieces. The microcomputer turns the data into light signals that are transmitted to electrodes in the retinal implant. The electrodes then stimulate the retina in such a way that the wearer sees a simplified, black-and-white version of the image. This simplified version is made up of dots of light that appear when the retinal cells are stimulated. However, wearers must learn to interpret the many dots of light in order to make out shapes and objects. "It's like when you look at stars in the night sky—you can learn to recognize specific constellations. Blind patients would see something similar with our system," says Ghezzi.

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The only catch is that the system has not yet been tested on humans. The research team first needs to be certain of their results. "We aren't yet authorized to implant our device in human patients, since obtaining the medical approval takes a long time. But we came up with a process for testing it virtually—a type of work-around," says Ghezzi. More specifically, the engineers developed a virtual reality program that can simulate what patients would see with the implants. Their findings have just been published in Communication Materials.

Two parameters are used to measure vision: field of vision and resolution. The engineers therefore used these same two parameters to evaluate their system. The retinal implants they developed contain 10,500 electrodes, with each one serving to generate a dot of light. "We weren't sure if this would be too many electrodes or not enough. We had to find just the right number so that the reproduced image doesn't become too hard to make out. The dots have to be far enough apart that patients can distinguish two of them close to each other, but there has to be enough of them to provide sufficient image resolution," says Ghezzi.

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[Abnredleg]

1. I initially read this as Rectal Implant

Clue jokes about hindsight.

[GPV]

3. Ditto lol

[PittBlue]

2. That would be so amazing.

My husband is blind in one eye and I live with the fear of him losing sight in his other eye.

[abqtommy]

4. My two sons by my second ex-wife are both blind due to the retinitis pigmentosa that

affects many autistic people. There is no treatment. Fortunately they both adapted to
and accepted this in a positive way. I wish I could say the same for myself!

It's good to remember that the causes of blindness are many and positive results do
not obtain for many who suffer.

[colsohlibgal]

5. So Amazing And Encouraging

What a great thing this would be, I fervently hope it succeeds to the Max.

[MisterNiceKitty]

6. Cyborg