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BIONIC EYES
Towards creating the joy of sight for the blind

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BY:

Y S V Sashidhar, B Swetha Reddy,

EEE 3rd Year, ECE 2nd Year,

Bandari Srinivas Institute of Technology. Hi-point College of Engineering &

Technology.
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Abstract –

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 specifically to imitate
the characteristics of the damaged retina, and the cones and rods of the organ of sight
are implanted with a microsurgery. Whether it is Bio medical, Computer, Electrical,
Electronic or Mechanical Engineers – all of them have a role to play in the
personification of Bionic Eyes. 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.
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1. INTRODUCTION

“There is no better way to thank God for your sight than by lending a helping hand to
those in dark.”
There is no replacement for human sight. It is simply incomparable because of its
capacity to see. Our life is full of pictures we daily see. Life without sight is dark. And
blind people lead dark lives. As capable human beings, we need to do something more
than just helping a blind person cross the road.
Belonging to the community of engineers – there is no frontier that we cannot conquer.
If scientists give birth to ideas, then it is we engineers who put life into those ideas.
Today, we have every tool in our hand. The ball is in our court! It is our turn now, to
return what mankind has given us. What about bestowing sight for the blind? There is no
magic wand to do this in a jiffy. But yes! We certainly know the magic route to reach our
goal: Science and Technology.
Today, we talk of artificial intelligence that has created waves of interest in the field
of robotics. When this has been possible, why not artificial vision? It is with this dream
that I present this paper on Bionic Eyes. Sooner or later, this shall create a revolution in
the field of medicine.
It is important to know few facts about the organ of sight i.e., the Eye before we
proceed towards the technicalities involved.
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2. HOW ARE WE ABLE TO SEE?

Having seen the anatomical part of human eye, let’s try to know as to how we are able to
see – how is an image being formed? For vision to occur, 2 conditions need to be met:

1. An image must be formed on the retina to stimulate its receptors (rods and cones).
2. Resulting nerve impulses must be conducted to the visual areas of the cerebral cortex
for interpretation.

Four processes focus light rays, so that they form a clear image on the retina

1. Refraction of light rays

2. Accommodation of the lens
3. Constriction of the pupil
4. Convergence of the eyes
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3. How is vision impaired?

Damage or degeneration of the optic nerve, the brain, or any part of the visual
pathway between them, can impair vision. For example, the pressure associated with
glaucoma can also damage the optic nerve. Diabetes, already cited as a cause of retina
damage, can also cause degeneration of the optic nerve.
Damage to the visual pathway does not always result in total loss of sight.
Depending on where the damage occurs, only a part of the visual field may be affected.
For example, a certain form of neuritis (nerve inflammation), often associated with
multiple sclerosis, can cause loss of only the center of the visual field – a condition called
scotoma.
A stroke can cause vision impairment when the resulting tissue damage occurs in
one of the regions of the brain that process visual information. For example, damage to
an area that process information about colors may result in a rare condition called
acquired cortical color blindness. This condition is characterized by difficulty in
distinguishing any color – not just one or two colors as in the more common inherited
forms of color blindness.
A more common treatment for curing blindness has been corneal transplantation.
More about it:
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4. Corneal Transplants:
Surgical removal of opaque or deteriorating corneas and replacement with donor
transplants is a common medical practice.

Corneal tissue is a vascular; that is, the cornea is free of blood vessels. Therefore corneal
tissue is seldom rejected by the body’s immune system. Antibodies carried in the blood
have no way to reach the transplanted tissue, and therefore long-term success following
implant surgery is excellent.

5. What are Bionic Eyes?

An artificial eye provokes visual sensations in the brain by directly stimulating
different parts of the optic nerve. There are also other experimental implants that can
stimulate the ganglia cells on the retina or the visual cortex of the brain itself. There is
more concentration given to the production of artificial retinas.
Here is the description of a Bionic Eye:

Many types of artificial eyes have been designed and research is still going on. There is
no standard model in this case. Researchers are working out different types of concepts.

Here are a few examples:

The prototype devices are 2 millimeters across and contain some 3,500 micro
photodiodes. Placed behind the retina, this collection of miniature solar cells is designed
to convert natural light to electrical signals, which are then transmitted to the brain by the
remaining healthy parts of the retina.
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A Belgian device has a coil that wraps around the optic nerve, with only four
points of electrical contact. By shifting the phase and varying the strength of the signals,
the coil can stimulate different parts of the optic nerve, rather like the way the electron
guns in TVs are aimed at different parts of the screen. The video signals come from an
external camera and are transmitted to the implant via
a radio antenna and microchip beneath the skin just behind the ear.
Implants of a microchip, smaller than the head of a pin and about half the
thickness of a sheet of paper were used to remove blindness.

6. Engineering details of the Bionic Eye:

First, for visually impaired people to derive the greatest benefit from an
enhanced-vision system, the image must be adapted to their particular blind areas and
areas of poor acuity or contrast sensitivity. Then the information arriving instantaneously
at the eye must be shifted around those areas. The thrust of all prosthetic vision devices is
to use an electrode array to give the user perceptions of points of light (phosphenes) that
are correlated with the outside world. Thus, to achieve the expected shift of the image
across the stimulating electrode array, the camera capturing the image must follow the
wearer's eye or pupil movements by monitoring the front of the eye under infrared (IR)
illumination. The eye-position monitor controls the image camera's orientation. If the
main image-acquisition camera is not mounted on the head, compensation for head
movement will be needed, as well.
Finally, if a retinal prosthesis is to receive power and signal input from outside the
eye via an IR beam entering the pupil, the transmitter must be aligned with the intraocular
chip. The beam has two roles: it sends power, and it is pulse-or amplitude-modulated to
transmit image data. Under the control of eye movement, the main imaging camera for
each eye can swivel in any direction. Each of these cameras--located just outside the
users' field of view to avoid blocking whatever peripheral vision they might have--
captures the image of the outside world and transmits the information through an optical
fiber to a signal-processing computer worn on the body.
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7. The surgery!

This concept of Artificial Vision is also interesting to engineers, because there are
a number of technicalities involved in this surgery apart from the anatomical part. The
microsurgery starts with three incisions smaller than the diameter of a needle in the white
part of the eye. Through the incisions, surgeons introduce a vacuuming device that
removes the gel in the middle of the eye and replaces it with saline solution. Surgeons
then make a pinpoint opening in the retina to inject fluid in order to lift a portion of the
retina from the back of the eye, creating a pocket to accommodate the chip. The retina is
resealed over the chip, and doctors inject air into the middle of the eye to force the retina
back over the device and close the incisions.
During the entire surgery, a biomedical engineer takes part actively to ensure that
there is no problem with the chip to be implanted.
:

8. Some facts about Bionic Eyes

Scientists at the Space Vaccum Epitaxy Centre (SVEC) based at the University of
Houston, Texas, are using a new material, comprising tiny ceramic photocells that could
detect incoming light and repair malfunctioning human eyes. Scientists at SVEC are
conducting preliminary tests on the biocompatibility of this ceramic detector.
The artificial retinas constructed at SVEC consist of 100,000 tiny ceramic
detectors, each 1/20th 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 in size.
After insertion into an eyeball, the polymer film will simply dissolve leaving only the
array behind after a couple of weeks.

9. The Analogy:
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There is a great degree of coherence between the ways our eyes function to that of
a change over time as the respective camera. Perhaps – our eyes had been the
technologies are further developed and inspiration behind the camera’s invention.
Here’s more about it:
From the structural point of view the eye may be compared with a camera. The
eyelids act as a shutter and there is an entrance – the cornea; a diaphragm to regulate
aperture and therefore the amount of light entering – the iris; a lens to focus the image;

10. CONCLUSION

Restoration of sight for the blind is no more a dream

Bionic Eyes have made this true. Though there are a number of challenges to be faced
before technology reach the common man, the path has been laid. This paper has tried to
present the concept of Artificial Vision through an engineer’s viewpoint. Engineers play
a major role in the design stage of Bionic Eyes.
It is just a matter of 4-5 years that the blind will be able to see through these Bionic Eyes;
thanks to Science and Technology.

References:
1. Neural Implants – First Bionic Eyes by Victor Chase.
2. Anthony’s textbook of Anatomy and Physiology -Gary A Thibodeau, Kevin T Patton

BIBLIOGRAPHY :

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