The Development of Artificial Vision

<p class="p1"><em>This podcast is about big ideas on how technology is making life better for people with vision loss.</em></p> <p class="p1">Today’s big idea is all about the cutting edge advancements in ocular bionic prosthetics. The Argus II is a device that uses a camera and a chip to stimulate the retina and send signals to the brain. Our guest, Dr. Mark Humayun, developer of the Argus II, speaks with Dr. Roberts about the development of this device, and the importance of the collaboration between developers and early adopters. He talks about the engineering, neurophysiology, and surgical challenges they’ve overcome to get to where they are, as well as what kind of advancements might be possible in the future.</p> <p class="p2"> </p> <p class="p1"><strong>The Big Takeaways:</strong></p> <ul class="ul1"> <li class="li1">The Argus II is a device with two components: a wearable component that consists of glasses with a camera and video processing unit and an implanted device that includes an antenna and an electronic chip that sends electrodes to stimulate the remaining cells of the retina.</li> <li class="li1">The visual system is similar to a computer in that it requires hardware (our eyes, retina, optic nerve, visual cortex) and software (converts signals to what we describe as sight). When developing artificial vision, Dr. Humayun had to pinpoint how much of the retina needed to be replaced, as well as how much of the retina needed to still exist for the device to work.</li> <li class="li1">The electronic system stimulates groups of neurons into visual perceptions. Users of the Argus II can currently perceive up to 10 shades of gray. Dr. Humayun and his team are working on getting the device to generate color vision by stimulating the retina at different frequencies, which the wearer learns to associate with a named color.</li> <li class="li1">The cochlear implant was a big influence on the initial development of Argus II — they reconfigured a cochlear implant and used it to stimulate the retina rather than