University of California Bioelectronics Professor Wentai Liu is working on technology for artificial retina implants and neural prosthesis for spinal cord and other injuries.
Here is a recent article on him and his work from Good Times in Santa Cruz:
http://www.goodtimessantacruz.com/santa-cruz-news/good-times-cover-stories/485-top-of-the-class.html
Here’s an earlier article from UCSC:
The Artificial Retina Project sponsored by the US Dept of Energy will soon be implanting artificial retinas with over 200 electrodes. Current implants have 60. They are also investigating the use of photosynthetic cells from algae as potentially higher efficiency replacements for the metal electrodes currently used. See the Artificial Retina News for more details.
People with Stargardt’s disease may be the first to be treated with human stem cells. Clinical trials of the RPE regeneration therapy may begin in early 2010. See the news article in the Daily Mail.
Read this interesting article about stem cell research that is being done in the UK that may restore vision lost due to retinal degeneration.
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0708/07080101
Here is a recent news article updating progress on the second generation artificial retinal implant developed at USC.
The second generation implant moves up from 16 electrodes to 60. At this point it is not enough resolution for facial recognition or reading large print. Plans are for 1000 electrodes within 7 years.
This is quite a unique approach to restoring vision. The BrainPort is being developed by Wicab for other applications as well. See: http://www.wicab.us/research/vision/vision.html for their vision related research.
Forwarded From BlindNews Mailing List
CBS New York Thursday, January 18, 2007
Technology May Give Blind A Touch Of Sight
By Daniel Sieberg
At first glance, Roger Behm looks like an independent guy who sees the world with a rather sharp sense of humor. But he’s actually seen nothing since he was a young man, CBS News technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg reports.
However, part of his world is coming back into focus, through experimental technology called BrainPort. One day it could actually help blind people see, in a sense, by using their tongues. BrainPort swaps tiny cameras for eyes and transforms the images into electrical impulses that are felt on the tongue. “It is as if it’s drawing on the tongue. So if you capture the image fast enough … it is like a video display. Instead of being on a screen, now it is on your tongue,” says Rich Hogle of BrainPort.
In normal vision, the eyes send signals to the middle of the brain. From there, the signals are sent directly to the visual cortex at the back of the brain. That’s not so for the blind, however. BrainPort retrains the way the brain processes information by first stimulating the tongue with an array of tiny electrodes. The nerves in the tongue send signals through a different pathway to the brain stem and the area that deals with to touch. Eventually the blind person learns to interpret touch as sight. Block quote start Roger Behm uses the Brainport, then gives a chair caning demonstration in his workshop. Block quote end “you know when you’re a kid and - I don’t know if you did it or not - but one kid would draw on your back and you’d try to guess what it is? That’s what it’s like,” Behm explains. Sound impossible? Behm is able to walk through the BrainPort office without any guidance. He can navigate an obstacle course and pick out specific shapes. Behm can even spot the logo on a football jersey.
“It’s like learning a language. At first you might need to take a long time thinking about what the translation is. I might feel stimulation in the rightfront part of my tongue, (but) what does that mean?,” says Aimee Arnoldussen, a BrainPort researcher. “But very rapidly, like learning a language, you might learn a few quick vocabulary (words), and eventually you become so fluent that you don’t need to think about it anymore.”
Sieberg put on a blindfold and tried out BrainPort. After a humbling first attempt, he managed to understand some of the BrainPort language. For the blind, it’s a glimpse at more freedom.
Behm says he hopes “this develops to the point where the next generation can get benefit from it, even if I don’t get the greatest out of it. I still am determined that if I can see their eyes and maybe I can see a smile or a grin - that’d be cool.”
For the rest of us, it’s a miraculous look at how our brains can be trained to rewire themselves.
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