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ARTIFICIAL VISION- A BIONIC EYE
SHEDS NEW LIGHT….

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CONTENTS:

1. Abstract
2. Introduction
3. Causes for blindness
4. How retina works?
5. Bionic eye
6. Advantages of bionic eye overcoming silicon eye
7. Expectations of future
8. Conclusion

ABSTRACT
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For those millions of us whose vision isn't perfect, there are glasses. But for
those hundreds of thousands who are blind, devices that merely assist the eyes just aren't
enough. What they need are alternative routes by which the sights of the world can enter
the brain and be interpreted.
Technology has created many path ways for the mankind. Now technology
has improved to that extent where in the entire human body can be controlled using a
single electronic chip. We have seen prosthetics that helped to overcome handicaps. Bio
medical engineers play a vital role in shaping the course of these prosthetics. Now it is
the turn of artificial vision through bionic eyes. Chips designed specially to imitate the
characteristics of the damaged retina and the cones and rods of the organ of sight are
implanted with a microsurgery.
Linking electronics and biotechnology, the scientists has made the
commitment to the development of technology that will provide or restore vision for the
visually impaired around the world.
This multidisciplinary nature of the ‘new technology’ has inspired me to
present this paper. There is hope for the blind in the form of bionic eyes. This technology
can add life to their vision less eyes.

INTRODUCTION

`Bionic eye,' also called a Bio Electronic eye, is the electronic device that
replaces functionality of a part or whole of the eye. It is still at a very early stage in its
development, but if successful, it could restore vision to people who have lost sight
during their lifetime. A bionic eye work by stimulating nerves, which are activated by
electrical impulses. In this case the patient has a small device implanted into the body that
can receive radio signals and transmit those signals to nerves

. One of the most dramatic applications of bionics is the

creation of artificial eyes. Early efforts used silicon-based photodetectors, but silicon is
toxic to the human body and reacts unfavourably with fluids in the eye. Now, scientists at
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the Space Vacuum Epitaxy Centre (SVEC) based at the University of Houston, Texas,
are using a new material they have developed, tiny ceramic photocells that could detect
incoming light and so ‘repair’ malfunctioning human eyes.

In our paper we first introduce the causes for blindness, working of

natural retina and bionic eye.

CAUSES OF BLINDNESS:
There are a number of retinal diseases that attack these cells, which can lead to blindness.
The most notable of these diseases are
1. Retinitis pigmentosa
2. Age-related macular degeneration.
Both of these diseases attack the retina, rendering the rods and cones inoperative, causing
either loss of peripheral vision or total blindness. However, it's been found that neither of
these retinal diseases affect the ganglion cells or the optic nerve. This means that if
scientists can develop artificial cones and rods, information could still be sent to the brain
for interpretation.

HOW RETINA WORKS?

The eye is one of the most amazing organs in the body. To understand how artificial
vision is created, it's important to know about the important role that the retina plays in
how you see Here is a simple explanation of what happens when you look at an object:

• Scattered light from the object enters through the cornea.

• The light is projected onto the retina.
• The retina sends messages to the brain through the optic nerve.
• The brain interprets what the object is.

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Figures (1,2): the

anatomy of the eye and its path view

The retina is complex in itself.

This thin membrane at the back of the eye is a
vital part of your ability to see. Its main
function is to receive and transmit images to the
brain. These are the three main types of cells in the eye that help perform this function:

• Rods
• Cones
• Ganglion Cells

There are about 125 million rods and cones within the retina that act as the eye's
photoreceptors. Rods are the most numerous of the two photoreceptors, outnumbering
cones 18 to 1. Rods are able to function in low light (they can detect a single photon) and
can create black and white images without much light. Once enough light is available (for
example, daylight or artificial light in a room), cones give us the ability to see color and
detail of objects. Cones are responsible for allowing you to read this article, because they
allow us to see at a high resolution .
The information received by the rods and cones are then transmitted to the
nearly 1 million ganglion cells in the retina. These ganglion cells interpret the messages

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from the rods and cones and send the information on to the brain by way of the optic
nerve.

BIONIC EYE
Structure of the Microdetectors:
The ceramic microdetectors resemble the ultra-thin films found in
modern computer chips. The arrays are stacked in a hexagonal structure, which mimics
the arrangement of the rods and cones it has been designed to replace. ‘Our work differs
from existing work in that we are using a newly developed oxide thin-film ceramic
microdetector that does not require encapsulation or wire connections for integration into
the human retina.’

The prototype implant:

The first implant had just 16 electrodes on the retinal pad and, as a result,
visual information was limited. The new device has 60 electrodes and the receiver is
shrunk to one-quarter of the original's size. It is now small enough to be inserted into the
eye socket itself. The operation to fit the implant will also last just 1.5 hours, down from
7.5 hours.

Implant to be used in future:

Artificial retinas constructed at SVEC (Space Vacuum Epitaxy Centre)
consist of 100,000 tiny ceramic detectors, each 1/20 the size of a human hair. The
assemblage is so small that surgeons can't safely handle it. So, the arrays are attached to a
polymer film one millimeter by one millimeter in size.
A couple of weeks after insertion into an eyeball, the
polymer film will simply dissolve leaving only the array
behind

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Fig 3. First generation ceramic thin film microdetectors How it is implanted:

"An incision is made in the white portion of the eye and the retina is elevated
by injecting fluid underneath," explains Garcia, comparing the space to a blister forming
on the skin after a burn. "Within that little blister, we place the artificial retina."

A schematic diagram of the retina (below fig)-- a light-sensitive layer that covers 65% of
the interior surface of the eye. scientists hope to replace damaged rods and cones in the
retina with ceramic microdetector arrays

Fig 4. A schematic diagram of the retina

How does a "bionic eye" allow blind people to see?

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fig 5. Overview of bionic eye

The Argus II implant consists of an

array of electrodes that are attached to
the retina and used in conjunction with
an external camera and video processing
system to provide a rudimentary form of
sight to implanted subjectsThe Argus II
Retinal Prosthesis System can provide
sight -- the detection of light -- to people
who have gone blind from

degenerative eye diseases like macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. Ten
percent of people over the age of 55 suffer from various stages of macular degeneration;
and retinitis pigmentosa is an inherited disease that affects about 1.5 million people
around the globe. Both diseases damage the eyes' photoreceptors, the cells at the back of
the retina that perceive light patterns and pass them on to the brain in the form of nerve
impulses, where the impulse patterns are then interpreted as images. The Argus II system
takes the place of these photoreceptors.

The second incarnation of Second Sight's retinal prosthesis consists of five main parts:

• Digital camera - built into a pair of glasses; captures images in real-

time; sends images to microchip
• Video-processing microchip - built into a handheld unit; processes
images into electrical pulses representing patterns of light and dark; sends
pulses to radio transmitter in glasses
• Radio transmitter - wirelessly transmits pulses to receiver implanted
above the ear or under the eye

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• Radio receiver - receiver sends pulses to the retinal implant by a hair-
thin, implanted wire
• Retinal implant - array of 60 electrodes on a chip measuring 1 mm by
1 mm
The entire system runs on a battery pack that is housed with the video processing unit.
When the camera captures an image -- of, say, a tree -- the image is in the form of light
and dark pixels. It sends this image to the video processor, which converts the tree-
shaped pattern of pixels into a series of electrical pulses that represent "light" and "dark."
The processor sends these pulses to a radio transmitter on the glasses, which then
transmits the pulses in radio form to a receiver implanted underneath the subject's skin.
The receiver is directly connected via a wire to the electrode array implanted at the back
of the eye, and it sends the pulses down the wire.

When the pulses reach the retinal implant, they excite the electrode array. The
array acts as the artificial equivalent of the retina's photoreceptors. The electrodes are
stimulated in accordance with the encoded pattern of light and dark that represents the
tree, as the retina's photoreceptors would be if they were working (except that the pattern
wouldn't be digitally encoded). The electrical signals generated by the stimulated
electrodes then travel as neural signals to the visual center of the brain by way of the
normal pathways used by healthy eyes -- the optic nerves. In macular degeneration and
retinitis pigmentosa, the optical neural pathways aren't damaged. The brain, in turn,
interprets these signals as a tree, and tells the subject, "You're seeing a tree."

All of this takes some training for subjects to actually see a tree. At first, they see mostly
light and dark spots. But after a while, they learn to interpret what the brain is showing
them, and eventually perceive that pattern of light and dark as a tree.

Thus bionic eye helps a blind people to see the objects and recognize them.

HOW ADVANTAGES OF BIONIC EYE OVERCOME SILICON EYE

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• But silicon is toxic to the human body and reacts unfavorably with fluids in the
eye -- problems that SVEC's(Space Vacuum Epitaxy Centre) ceramic detectors do
not share.
• The natural layout of the detectors solves another problem that plagued earlier
silicon research: blockage of nutrient flow to the eye.
• All the nutrients flow from back to front in case of silicon
implant(large,impressive structure)where as in the ceramic detectors are
individual, five-micron-si ze units (the exact size of cones) that allow nutrients to
flow around them.
• The ceramic detectors does not deteriorate and [neither does] the eye.

EXPECTATIONS OF FUTURE
Researchers are already planning a third version that has 1,000 electrodes on the retinal
implant, which they believe could allow for facial-recognition capabilities and hope to
allow the user to see images.

Scientists believes the immediate goal after achieving above is to develop a functioning
artificial retina with resolution that mimics human sensors. ‘Once this step has been
achieved,’ they says, ‘then attention can be brought to bear on colour vision, followed by
the replacement of some of the interconnecting neural cells that lead to the optic nerve.’
So, let us hope to reach all these goals as soon as possible.

We have to find ways for the following:

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If the optic nerve or vision processing centres in the brain are damaged it cannot
help, but there are many conditions in which patients lose the function of the receptor
cells in the retina and go blind, even though the neural circuitry behind is intact.

CONCLUSION
To date, six volunteers have received implants of a micro-electronic device
that rests on the surface of the retina to perform the function of normal photoreceptive
cells. Artificial retina research began with Mark Humayun, then at Johns Hopkins
University. The first human trial of Second Sight's artificial retina has been running since
2002, and it has enabled a formerly blind patient to distinguish between objects such as
cups and plates, and even to make out large letters. But with only 16 electrodes, the device
does not allow the patient to see a clear picture. For that, thousands of electrodes are
needed on the same size of chip.
The bionic eye has changed the world of the visually challenged people .We are sure
that h igher quality, better resolution, and even color are possible in the future.

REFERENCES:
1. www.google.com
2. www.howstuffworks.com
3. science.nasa.gov

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