Wearable Computer Vision Systems for a Cortical Visual Prosthesis

Cortical visual prostheses produce bionic vision by translating data from a head worn sensor into spatial-temporal patterns of electrical stimulation of a patient's Primary Visual Cortex (V1). The resulting bionic vision has low resolution, poor dynamic range and other limitations. These limitations are unlikely to change in the next decade due to the combined constraints of technology and biology as well as the slow process of medical device certification. This paper discusses ongoing research on Wearable Computer Vision Systems (WCVS) designed for two purposes: Improving the utility of bionic vision and non-invasive evaluation of visual prosthesis on sighted subjects using Simulated Prosthetic Vision (SPV).