The goal of the Stanford Artificial Retina Project is to develop an advanced artificial retina that will reproduce the precise retinal code at a cellular resolution with cell-type specificity, resulting in high-fidelity artificial vision.

The proposed device includes several components, some of which are mounted on specially designed glasses, while others reside on or inside the eye. All connectivity is accomplished wirelessly using either radio frequency (RF) or ultrasound transmission. This design's advantage lies in the minimalist nature of the permanent implant, while the external components are easily accessible and upgradeable. Changes to the software algorithms can be simply uploaded to the device without altering the implanted microarray, and improvements in most of the hardware can be accomplished with new glasses. A powerful signal processor receives data from several sensors and from the implanted electrode array, which can record retinal signals. After calibration, it transforms visual camera signals into stimulation pulse commands sent wirelessly to the implant.

Device Specifications

• Image processor location: in glasses