A new form of retinal implant may give the last blind a glimpse. The research is led by Diego Ghezzi, who holds the Medtronic Chair in Neuroengineering (LNE) at the EPFL School of Engineering.
The novel retinal implant works with smart glasses with camera and microcomputer equipment and uses electrodes to stimulate retinal cells. The way it works is very ingenious.
The camera in the smart glasses takes images and sends the data to a microcomputer located in one of the final pieces of the eyeglasses. This microcomputer then converts that data into light signals.
Electrons in the retinal implant then use these light signals to stimulate the retina. The person then sees a black-and-white version of the image made up of light dots.
“It’s like looking at stars in the night sky – you can learn to recognize specific constellations. Blind patients would see something similar to our system,” Ghezzi said. SciTechDaily.
The investigation started all the way back in 2015 and has not yet been confirmed on humans because of getting a medical permit takes a long time. The researchers, however, have designed a virtual reality program that is similar to what patients would see with the implants.
The new implants have an impressive 10,500 electrodes. “We weren’t sure if this would be too many electrodes or not enough. We had to find the right number so that the reconstructed image would not be too difficult to figure out. The dots need to be far enough apart so that patients can identify two of them close to each other, but there must be enough of them to provide enough image resolution, ”they explained. SciTechDaily Ghezzi.
To date, the virtual reality verification program has stated that this number of electrons is ideal for the generation of visual images. Now, that’s interesting news!
The study is published in the journal Communication materials.