23-02-2013, 10:57 AM
A Paper Presentation on Electronic Eye
Electronic.doc (Size: 1.06 MB / Downloads: 26)
ABSTRACT
Electronic eye will be a wonderful boon that will restore eyesight for millions of people.25 million people are blind because one layer of cells on their retinas no longer works .By 2020 the figure is expected to be double .Now we are at the beginning of the end of blindness with this type of technology. Using advanced communication technology researchers are developing an artificial retina. They are investigating several electronic-based strategies designed to bypass various defects or missing links along the brain's image processing pathway and provide some form of artificial sight. For example, with the help of an experimental artificial retina, a man who has been blind for 50 years is now able to see.This paper is about curing blindness. Due to the advanced communication technology, the scientists have made the commitment to the development of technology that will provide or restore vision for the visually impaired around the world.
INTRODUCTION:
• The eye is one of the most amazing organs in the body. Before we understand how an electronic eye 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.
• The brain interprets what the object
HOW TO CREATE ELECTRONIC EYE?
The current path that scientists are taking to create electronic eye received a jolt in 1988, when Dr. Mark Humayun demonstrated that a blind person could be made to see light by stimulating the nerve ganglia behind the retina with an electrical current. This test proved that the nerves behind the retina still functioned even when the retina had degenerated. Based on this information, scientists set out to create a device that could translate images and electrical pulses that could restore vision. Today, such a device is very close to be available to the millions of people who have lost their vision to retinal disease. In fact, there are at least two silicon microchip devices that are being developed. The concept for both devices is similar, with each being:
• Small enough to be implanted in the eye
• Supplied with a continuous source of power
• Biocompatible with the surrounding eye tissue
WORKING OF ELECTRONIC EYE SYSTEM:
The main parts of this system are miniature video camera, a signal processor, and the brain implants. The tiny pinhole camera, mounted on a pair of eyeglasses, captures the scene in front of the wearer and sends it to a small computer on the patient's belt. The processor translates the image into a series of signals that the brain can understand, and then sends the information to the brain implant that is placed in patient’s visual cortex. And, if everything goes according to plan, the brain will "see" the image
CONCLUSION
The electronic eye is the latest system aimed at helping millions of blind and visually impaired people. The first useful electronic eye is now helping a blind man walk safely around and read. Several efforts are now underway to create vision in other ways for blind people. While technically exciting, much more work in this area needs to be completed before anything is available to the majority of patients. Research is ongoing in two areas: cortical implants and retinal implants. There is still an enormous amount of work to be done in developing artificial retinas. In the long run, there could be the possibility of brain implants. A brain implant or cortical implant provides visual input from a camera directly to the brain via electrodes in contact with the visual cortex at the backside of the head.