A seminar report On

BIONIC EYE
Submitted for the mandatory seminar in the branch of

COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING By PYLA BHAGAVAN 08G51A0530 Email Id: bhagvanpyla@gmail.com

AKULA SREE RAMULU INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY

(Affiliated to J.N.T University, Kakinada) Prathipadu,Tadepalligudem-534101 2011-2012

ABSTRACT: Bionic eye serves as alternate for the damaged rods and cones and thus helps in regaining lost sight. Rods and Cones are the major functional blocks of eye which play a vital role in converting light rays to electric signals and there by helps in visualizing an object. Hence, these rods and cones serve as the major cause for vision. Any damage to these rods and cones leads to loss of vision or blindness. Rods and cones can be damaged due to any of the specified diseases. 1. Retinitis pigmentosa: This disease is hereditary and may even strike at an early age. This destroys photoreceptors that are responsible for night vision and color vision. 2. Aged Macular Degeneration: This disease strikes at an older age. This destroys sharp and central vision. Bionic eye can be implemented in any of these cases which finally results in regain of the lost vision.

Scientists are testing two designs in parallel. The first design of the bionic eye involves silicon based photo detectors which are inserted into the eye ball. Later these detectors are replaced by ceramic detectors. These detectors are ultra thin films that exhibit optical properties and are grown layer by layer. The second design involves a silicon chip that serves as retina to be inserted into the eye. It also includes a pair of glasses to

which a camera is attached. The inserted retina receives images that are captured by the camera present on the glasses. This involves high resolution with 60 electrodes. These designs do not eliminate blindness completely but up to an extent. Scientists and researchers hope to produce third generation bionic eye with 1000 electrodes which could allow advanced tasks such as face recognition.

INTRODUCTION

Eye is a complex machine which contains more than hundred million photoreceptors which are commonly referred as rods and cones. Whenever we look at an object, light rays from that object are reflected onto the cornea of our eye. Internally, these light rays are bent, refracted and focused by the cornea, lens and vitreous. The purpose of the lens is to make sure that rays come to a sharp focus on the retina. The image formed on the retina is upside-down. On the retina, a protein pigment known as

Rhodopsin forms the bottom layer of the photoreceptors. This pigment converts light rays to electrical impulses and these impulses are transmitted to the brain through optic nerve. At the brain the image is translated and perceived in an upright position.

Eye not only captures images but also detects the direction of motion, perceive colors,

enhance contrast and adjust to different levels of brightness. The various internal parts of eye perform various functions. For example, macula is responsible for our critical focusing vision. Rods which are not sensitive to color are responsible for adapted vision. Cones provide high color sensitivity and are responsible for all high resolution vision. CAUSE FOR BLINDNESS: Rods and Cones are the main functional blocks of eye that are responsible for vision. Any damage or the malfunctioning of these rods and cones leads

to loss of vision or blindness. The causes for the damage of the rods and cones are RETINITIS PIGMENTOSA: This is a degenerative retinal disease that results in the death of photoreceptors i.e. rods and cones. Rod shaped cells at the retinas periphery are responsible for night vision and cone shaped cells are responsible for color vision. This tends to be hereditary and may strike at an early age.

AGED MACULAR DEGENARATION:

This disease destroys the sharp and central vision. This affects the macula, the part of the eye that allows you to see fine detail. This may at an older age. Generally, for people of age above 65. BIONIC EYE: It is the concept which used to restore the lost sight because of the above specified diseases. Bionic eye serves as an alternative for the damaged rods and cones that are responsible for loss of vision or blindness. Through out the world scientists have been performing various experiments on this bionic eye project. The

experiments conducted until now led to two different designs. The first design involves the concept of using ceramic detectors and the second design involves the concept of silicon chips which serves as retina and a pair of glasses on which a camera is mounted. FIRST DESIGN: This design uses photo sensitive ceramic films that respond to light as much as rods and cones do. Hence, these serve as substitutes for the damaged rods and cones finally resulting in Bionic eye.

Initially researchers developed a design which uses electrodes that protrude up from chip like pillars where these pillars allow greater access of the retinal cells towards nutrients. These specific cell layers are affected by controlling the height of the pillars. The main disadvantage of this design is that pillars expose more number of cells to current which leads to heating tissues

and there by increasing the chance for cross-talk in which many electrodes effect one cell. Therefore, they developed another concept which uses electrodes that are recessed into pores.

Based on this concept scientists at MIT tried to build artificial rods and cones. Their earlier inventions involved silicon based photo detectors. Silicon reacts unfavorably with fluids in the eye which is toxic to human body. To over

come this they have used ceramic detectors. Ceramic detectors are ultra thin films which by using semi-conductor expertise can be formed as arrays. These arrays are stacked in a hexagonal structure mimicking the arrangement of rods and cones. These detectors solve another problem of blocking nutrients flow to the eye. Therefore the ceramic detectors are individual five micronsized units that allow nutrients to flow. These detectors are grown atom-by-atom and layer-by-layer on a background substrate called as epitaxy. These well ordered epitaxially

grown films exhibit optical properties.

Development of these films is based on the space technology developed by Space vacuum epitaxy center (SVEC). The space technology involves thin oxide films using atomic oxygen in low Earth orbit as a natural oxidizing agent that helps to develop the oxide detectors that were now used for the bionic eye project.

SECOND DESIGN: US researchers have developed Argus II system which uses a spectacle mounted camera to feed visual information to electrodes in the eye. It functions by taking images from a camera and convert them into tiny electrical pulses that allow patients to see. The disadvantage is that once the telescope is implanted the eyes no longer work together because the brain can not merge the magnified image in one eye with the normal image in the other eye.

The artificial retinas which were constructed at SVEC consist of 10,000 tiny ceramic detectors. These arrays are attached to a polymer film one millimeter by one millimeter in size and are inserted onto the eyeball. A couple weeks after insertion into eyeball the polymer film will dissolve leaving the array behind.

1: Camera on glasses views image 2: Signals are sent to hand-held device 3: Processed information is sent back to glasses and wirelessly transmitted to receiver under surface of eye 4: Receiver sends information to electrodes in retinal implant 5: Electrodes stimulate retina to send information to brain To avoid this, scientists have developed a system which involves a camera mounted on a pair of glasses and a silicon chip which acts as retina. These

devices work by implanting an array of tiny electrodes into the back of retina. When ever the patient looks at an object the camera captures images and sends them to the processing unit about the size of a small handled computer which is worn on a belt tied to their waist. The processing unit converts the visual information into electrical signals. These are then sent back to the glasses and to the receiver wirelessly. This receiver which is placed under the surface of eye sends the information to the electrodes in the retinal implant with high resolution of 60

electrodes. These electrodes stimulate the retina to send information to the brain. CONCLUSION: These techniques partially restore the vision of people affected by retinitis pigmentosa and aged macular degeneration. Researchers hope to produce a third generation implant with 1000 electrodes, which could allow more advanced tasks such as face recognition.

REFERENCES: www.bbc.co.uk www.science.nasa.gov www.gaurdian.co.uk