The Past, Present and Future of Bionic Vision
Elliot Whaley
Computing Research
Department of Computing Sciences
Villanova University, Villanova, Pa, 19085
elliot.whaley@villanova.edu
November 19, 2008
Abstract
The WHO, world health organization, estimated that in 2002 there were
161 million (about 2.6% of the world population) visually impaired people
in the world. This staggering number leads many researchers and scientist
to develop methods and devices to aid or cure blindness. This paper goes
over the current and past methods used to help the blind as well as future
research into methods that will not only help the blind but enable people
with normal vision to see beyond 20/20. We also propose a method to
obtain energy one such device more efficiently.
1. Introduction
This research surveys the development stages of bionic vision and proposes a new line
of research that explores new energy solutions. In the beginning, attempts to improve
human vision were made by connecting head pieces to the brain in order to cure
blindness. Later research led to the development of more advanced glasses, called
EyeTaps, that went beyond correcting vision. The latest stage of development involves
contact lenses that can aid a human to see better than 20/20 and link their vision to
computer devices. Bionic vision is an important area of research with a significant
impact on blind people who, with the help of bionic vision, are capable of seeing again.
Existing techniques include implanting computer chips in the human brain and using
bionic glasses. The military can use these lenses to improve the vision of pilots or
soldiers, a most important aid in battle. Video games, movies, iphones and computers
could be brought right to a persons’ field of vision. Special contacts could be used by
doctors to zoom in on a patient in the operating table.
Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a prototype for a bionic
contact lens [4]. The lenses have been tested on rabbits, however testing on humans
has not yet been approved. This device includes light-emitting diodes, basic wiring for
electronic circuits and a tiny antenna. The idea is to use the lenses as a flexible plastic
platform that can display interfaces from other devices, such as a web browser or an
ipod on the contact lens. Bionic contact lenses are in the trial stages because there are
many health and technical issues that still need to be fixed. One of those issues is being
able to adequately power the contact lenses with cumbersome batteries. I propose
using photoelectric cells implanted in the lens to take power from solar energy to allow
the contacts to function anywhere.
Section 2 will cover the history of bionic vision leading up to its state today. Then in
section 3 will cover various ways of implementing bionic technology. Finally, Section 4
describes in detail my proposed work.
2. Development Stages of Bionic Vision
Bionic vision refers to the application of biological methods in nature combined with
study of engineering and computer science, working together towards the common goal
to correct vision and cure blindness.
Bionic vision began with the creation of technology to help cure blindness in patients
that lost their vision. That goal to cure and help the blind evolved into other areas of
development in bionic vision. Now computers and special glasses are used in procedures
that help people see again as well as improve vision beyond 20/20.
Medical procedures to cure blindness were first done in 1978 by William Dobelle. He
implanted electrodes into a man’s visual cortex. The procedure used by Dobelle
successfully treated 16 patients in Portugal [1].
A newer method of helping the blind see is by using the SWAN system which stands for
System for Wearable Audio Navigation [11]. This system was originally developed to
help the visually impaired, firefighters and soldiers navigate their way in unknown
territory, particularly when vision is obstructed or impaired.
Another approach to the vision problem was developed by Electrical Engineering
doctoral student Ninad Thakoor who is currently working to provide the blind and
visually impaired with a wearable, interactive system that will give them better
information on their indoor and outdoor surroundings. They system is referred to as
IntelligentEyes. They describe the system as it “consists of four major components:
eyeglass frame-mounted cameras providing real-time pattern recognition and distance
information; a wireless, ultra-wideband transceiver sending video and voice signals to
and from a reconfigurable processor; a battery-powered image processor analyzing
information from the cameras; and voice recognition and generation software providing
ease-of-use communications from and to the user. The prototype contains everything
but the voice capabilities for the system” [12].
A more advanced solution to helping the blind and going beyond that is the EyeTap system. The
EyeTap, a lifelong cyborglog, is a device originally designed to continuously record a
persons’ life. A person would wear glasses that would do the recording and could be
played back at anytime. Future developments of this device include helping correct
vision. This device started as a big clumpy device over the eyes however, in the past 30
years its development has led to smaller more visually attractive device resembling
everyday eyeglasses (FIGURE 1b). As a form of electronic visual aid, surveillance system,
and wearable camera phone, this device functions as natural extensions of the mind and
body.
A research team at University of Washington is working on a pair of contact lenses, the
latest step in bionic vision (FIGURE 3). These contact lenses combined with a computer
chip have the capability to connect to a wireless device and provide a visual image of
the data that would normal display on the device into your field of vision. High –
resolution images will be displayed before the user such as video games, texts, and
music.
3. Bionic Vision Technology and Methods
The technology ranges from an entire bionic eye to just contact lenses with computer
chips. Depending on the need different technologies are created and used in bionic
vision. This section will go through not only what these technologies are but also how
they work.
3.1 Technology to help the blind see
There was a procedure created to give sight to people who lost it by using glasses
connected to the human brain and a computer. This procedure uses a reverse Brain
Computer Interface (BCI). BCI measures minute differences in the voltage between
neutrons. The signal is then amplified and filtered. Then the signal interpreted by a
computer program or device (FIGURE 4). The device functions as a prosthetic cornea, by
directing light to the interior of the eye. An eye piece is placed on a pair of sunglasses
and connected to an electrode inside her skull. Then a small camera on the eye piece
sends video signals to a computer where it interprets the information from the signal
and sends it through two cables plugged into her skull. That information informs the
electrodes to now stimulate the brain, which creates a dot matrix image. Until her brain
adapts to the technology, she can only see outlines.
FIGURE 4[1]
A device that does not involve surgery but main goal is still to help the blind is the SWAN
system. The SWAN (System for Wearable Audio Navigation) system utilizes a small
laptop, a proprietary tracking chip, GPS, a digital compass, a head tracker, four cameras
and light sensor and bone-conduction headphones. Bone phones send auditory signals
in the form of vibrations through the skull without plugging the user’s ears. These tools
provide audio guidance to a person in their surrounding with or without vision. The
laptop is worn as a backpack; the sensors and tracking chip are worn on the head which
send data to the SWAN application on the laptop. The computer determines the user’s
location and the direction they are going and maps out a travel route, then sends 3-D
audio signals to the headphones to guide the user. SWAN uses two different types of
auditory displays. It can direct a user toward a sound for example, “walk 100 yards and
turn left.” The system can also point out items of interest such as doors, benches and
steps.
3.2 Technology of the EyeTap
The EyeTap is an experience capturing system that functions as both a camera and display.
The EyeTap started as a wearable telephone/computer satisfying the two most used senses,
sound and sight. Then a Cathode Ray Tube attached to a helmet presenting both text and
graphics. Once a made small enough to fit on glasses it was implemented in the system as in
figure1a (figure 1a). Rays of light which normally enter the eye are now reflected by the
diverter, which is a double-sided mirror. The rays of light are collected by a sensor such as a
CCD (charge coupled device) camera. The camera data is processed and the aremac, a
device that generates a synthetic ray of light, redisplays the image as rays of light. The rays
are again reflected off the diverter and the user perceives the virtual light. The virtual light
can be either an image or a computer mediated version of the real world. The EyeTap
differs from device such as head-mounted-displays (HMDs). HMD normally are used to
provide or add information into what a user perceives. However, “In EyeTap devices, the
diverter places the centre of projection of the camera at the centre of projection of the lens
of an eye of the wearer. When no computer mediation is used, EyeTap video can be
displayed to the user in such a way that the user perceives what he/she would otherwise
have in the absence of the device. EyeTap mediates a portion of the user's vision, in such a
way that it is integrated with the un-mediated portion of the user's field of view, without
any mismatch between the mediated area and the real world.”[13]
Figure 1a[13]
Figure 1b[2]
3.3 Scene specific imaging method for improving bionic vision
Bionic vision can be adjusted depending on the scene type. Different scenes and visual
aid devices can be suited to increase their effectiveness. For a scene to be translated
into an algorithm it first must be categorized. There are some automatic scene
categorization models, for instance Chernyak and Stark created one using Bayes’
theorem [5]. Segment features such as aspect ratio and average color are obtained from
a test image. Once the scene has been accurately determined by the user the authors
want to apply context dependent importance weighting to the image. Image mapping,
finding the most important object in an image, is used through several algorithms like
lossless compression, military target detection and advertising. The authors performed
an experiment where they proposed that scene weighted processing can improve
perception of low quality images. Figure 2 was presented to 20 normally sighted people.
Results show that scene-dependent importance mapping is a good tool to use in
automatic optimization of low quality images. The authors work applies to importance
map methods which bring together aspects of image that are known to influence the
attention of the human viewer. Such features include shape, size and contrast.
Figure 2[5]
3.4 Technology of the Contact Lenses
A prototype has been created by Babax Parviz at the University of Washington. The
lenses combined with a computer chip have the capability to connect to a wireless
device and provide a visual image of the data that would normal display on the device
into your field of vision. High –resolution images will be displayed before the user such
as video games, texts, and music. Researchers at the University of Washington felt they
could make a really tiny functional device that could be embedded into a contact lens. A
metal circuit and light –emitting diodes are placed in a polymer-based lens where the
lens is biologically compatible with the eye. Ultra-thin antennas, a few nanometers
thick, are used to send information wirelessly to devices.
Figure 3[4]
Prototype of the contact lens
Fused with computer chip
3.41 Adaptive Optics
Adaptive optics is a technique originally designed to sharpen images for military surveillance
devices and astronomical telescopes. In relation to the human eye, adaptive optics allows
people to see at high resolution, but it also works in reverse allowing researches to capture
detailed images of the eye’s retina. David R. Williams of the University of Rochester has
developed an approach to obtain this vision [3]. The goal of adaptive optics is to improve
human vision, but presently the focus is on preventing vision loss and correcting eyesight
problems. This is done by collecting light waves with a deformable mirror which can be
shaped to compensate for distortions in an image; then the mirror is coupled with a high
resolution camera that takes images of the retina to correct the distortions produced by the
imperfections in the eye. This method was used to help cure bad vision, however when
people with normal vision used the adaptive optics they experienced up to six fold
improvement in sight.
4. Proposed Work
My proposal involves the use of photoelectric cells implanted in the contact lens developed
at the University of Washington [4], to take power from solar energy and an antenna to
allow the contacts to function anywhere.
An important feature of these contact lenses is that they are wireless and easy to use
anytime, anywhere. It does not need to be physically connected to anything to work. In
order to keep this device stand alone, it needs a way to power itself without an accessory
that would need to be carried around to charge it. Taking solar energy to power these
lenses solves this problem. The lenses would need to have photoelectric cells, which
convert solar energy to electrical energy. Just one square meter of a solar panel has the
ability to power a 100W light bulb. A polar panel will need to be scaled down to fit inside
the contacts lenses with material that is compatible with the eye. Some advantages of using
solar energy are that solar energy is free, needs no fuel and produces no waste or pollution.
Some disadvantages are its high cost and a decrease in its performance at night. However,
in cases in which solar energy is no longer available, the contact lenses are capable of
extracting minimal power from the antenna, which could compensate for no light [4]. The
antenna does this by collecting radio frequency waves and turning them into useful energy.
The drawback of this method is that the user might be in a place with no frequencies to pick
up, like the Amazon. So a system that would combine of both methods, solar energy and
the antenna could potentially be powered at all times.
I plan to hire experts in the fields of solar power, biology and computer science to assist
with the project. With the proper research and development team this proposal can be
done and will help advance the device already in progress at University of Washington.
Timeline: Two months
Week 1&2: Research areas that I am unfamiliar with.
Week 3: Develop materials that can convert solar energy and are compatible with the
human eye.
Week 4 &5: Use those materials to create a tiny solar panel that will fit in the lens
Week 6: Implement an algorithm that will let the antenna and solar panel work together to
power the lenses in any situation.
Week 7: Testing of device on animals or prosthetic eye.
Week 8: Final release.
5. Conclusion
We conclude that even though blindness is a large problem in the world, there have been
major advances that may one day lead to everyone having beyond perfect vision. From the
medical procedure involving a lot of machinery and time bionic vision has come very far. A
person can now record their entire life via the EyeTap or possibly connect their contact
lenses with a wireless device.
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