Learning Retinal Implant System Offers Potential Solution to Blinds

Intelligent Medical Implants, a Switzerland based company, announced the successful implantation of its first-generation Learning Retinal Implant System, containing a 50-electrode device. The device is scheduled to be clinically tested with the patients at the University of Hamburg Medical School, Germany. The Learning Retinal Implant System, the company claims, is the most complex retinal implant tested ever in humans.

The Learning Retinal Implant System can replace the signal-processing functions of a healthy retina and give input to the retinal nerve cells that, in sequence, provide input to the optic nerve and the brain.

The three main components of the system are the retinal stimulator, which is surgically placed into the eye of a patient, a pair of spectacles containing an integrated mini-camera and transmitter components for wireless signal and energy transmission to be worn by the patient, and the pocket processor, which replaces the information processing function of the retina.

A high-speed digital signal processor provides information to the implant by using tunable software to approximate the information processing normally carried out by the healthy retina. This process helps patients to optimize their visual perception during the learning period. Indeed, use of patient’s feedback on perception as an input for the tuning of The Pocket Processor is essential.

The Learning Retinal Implant System is being tested in patients with Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), a hereditary blindness. Stephan Rietiker, executive board member and CEO of IMI says, “We expect that our Learning Retinal Implant System will some day allow patients to ’see’ objects by identifying their size, their position and their movements and shapes. In other words, a previously blind person, using our retinal implant, is expected to be able to move independently in an unknown environment - without the need for a guide dog or cane. No doubt, the development of a wireless visual prosthesis that could be implanted permanently with good results would be a colossal leap forward for the field of artificial vision, and we believe that we are now well down that road.”

Source: Medgadget.com