31-01-2013, 12:59 PM
ARTIFICIAL VISION FOR the BLIND
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ABSTRACT
Vision is one of the most important senses for the human being. Blindness can be a serious impairment, preventing a person from having an ordinary life. According to World Health Organization(WHO),an estimated 161 million people are visually impaired of whom 124 million people have low vision and 37 million people are blind.Every 5 seconds one person in the world goes blind and a child goes blind every minute.Nearly 1.4 million people under the age of 15 are blind worldwide. IS BLINDNESS A CURSE TO A HUMAN BEING?Our answer to this question is certainly “NO” and our paper presents a two solutions to this problem.In the 1st one we implant an ARTIFICIAL SILICON RETINA MICROCHIP into retinal space by which we impart ARTIFICIAL VISION IN THE BLIND. 2nd method is ELECTRO NEURAL VISION SYSTEM which has 4 components namely stereo camera headset,TENS unit,laptop,TENS gloves. .Artificial Silicon Retina[ASR] microchip is a 2-mm-diameter microphotodiode array chip, 25 μm in thickness designed for implantation into the subretinal space and it restores lost vision due ,AMD and RETINITIS PIGPMENTIS..In this paper we bring into light the functioning of retina,retinal diseases and method of creating artificial sight through implanting ARTIFICIAL SILICON RETINA CHIP.
INTRODUCTION
Even if we wear eyeglasses, our vision is probably good enough that we can recognize the small letters on this page. Text on most computer screens is about 3 millimetres tall and 2 mm wide . As we read this one sentence, we are probably oblivious to the thousands of pieces of visual information that your eyes are gathering each second. Just in the retina alone, there are millions of cells at work right now acting as photoreceptors reacting to light, similar to how a camera works to capture images on film. The retina is a thin layer of neural tissue that lines the back wall inside the eye. Some of these cells act to receive light, while others interpret the information and send messages to the brain through the optic nerve. This is part of the process that enables you to see. In damaged or disfunctional retinas, the photoreceptors stop working, causing blindness. The retina is a crucial layer in the vision process, while the visual cortex is the main brain visual processing area. Once stimulated by light, cells within retina processes images by converting their analog light signals into digital electro-chemical pulses that are sent via the optic nerve to the brain. Malfunction of any of these processes can result in vision loss. How our 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 we see. Here is a simple explanation of what happens when we 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.
HOW THE ARTIFICIAL SILICON RETINA WORKS
Artificial Silicon Retina[ASR] microchip is a 2-mm-diameter semiconductor microphotodiode array chip, 25 μm in thickness designed for implantation into the subretinal space. This chip is composed of approximately 5000 independently functioning electrodetipped
microphotodiodes and is powered solely by incident light. The electrical charge produced by these microphotodiodes is designed to alter the membrane po tentials of contacting retinal neurons and to simulate how light would normally activate these cells to form retinotopic visual images. Because the implant would stimulate the outer retina at an early functional stage, subsequent visual signal processing by the remaining neuroretinal networks would theoretically be possible.
Conclusion:
With the help of ASR MICROCHIP and ENVS SYSTEM we can restore vision in many visually impaired. Researchers are developing artificial cornea with help of proteins available in the body itself and biotechnological research methods.So with this an engineer can play the role of an opthamalogist and be an eye donater to many blind people in world…..