Journal article
Virtual reality simulation of epiretinal stimulation highlights the relevance of the visual angle in prosthetic vision.
- Thorn JT Medtronic Chair in Neuroengineering, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Institute of Bioengineering, School of Engineering, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland.
- Migliorini E
- Ghezzi D
- 2020-11-04
Published in:
- Journal of neural engineering. - 2020
English
OBJECTIVE
Retinal prostheses hold the potential for artificial vision in blind patients suffering from outer retinal dystrophies. The optimal number, density and coverage of the electrodes that a retinal prosthesis should have to provide adequate artificial vision in daily activities is still an open question and an important design parameter needed to develop better implants.
APPROACH
To address this question, we investigated the interaction between the visual angle, the pixel number and the pixel density without being limited by a small electrode count. We implemented prosthetic vision in a virtual reality environment in order to simulate the real-life experience of using a retinal prosthesis. We designed four different tasks simulating: object recognition, word reading, perception of a descending step and crossing a street.
MAIN RESULTS
The results of our study showed that in all the tasks the visual angle played the most significant role in improving the performance of the participant.
SIGNIFICANCE
The design of new retinal prostheses should take into account the relevance of the restored visual angle to provide a helpful and valuable visual aid to profoundly or totally blind patients.
Retinal prostheses hold the potential for artificial vision in blind patients suffering from outer retinal dystrophies. The optimal number, density and coverage of the electrodes that a retinal prosthesis should have to provide adequate artificial vision in daily activities is still an open question and an important design parameter needed to develop better implants.
APPROACH
To address this question, we investigated the interaction between the visual angle, the pixel number and the pixel density without being limited by a small electrode count. We implemented prosthetic vision in a virtual reality environment in order to simulate the real-life experience of using a retinal prosthesis. We designed four different tasks simulating: object recognition, word reading, perception of a descending step and crossing a street.
MAIN RESULTS
The results of our study showed that in all the tasks the visual angle played the most significant role in improving the performance of the participant.
SIGNIFICANCE
The design of new retinal prostheses should take into account the relevance of the restored visual angle to provide a helpful and valuable visual aid to profoundly or totally blind patients.
- Language
-
- English
- Open access status
- hybrid
- Identifiers
-
- DOI 10.1088/1741-2552/abb5bc
- PMID 33146146
- Persistent URL
- https://sonar.ch/global/documents/210018
Statistics
Document views: 71
File downloads: