Seeing on the surface of Eyeballs: Non-invasive visual substitution with the electro-tactile device on cornea

In this work, using tactile sensation of the cornea of the blind, a novel visual substitution method and system were proposed for visual reconstruction. Unlike previous tactile-visual substitution, the electro-tactile device attaches on the cornea of the blind, a “useless” organ for a blind, and will not impede intrinsic function of human body. The non-invasive flexible microelectrode array devices for electro-tactility were fabricated and tested. The in vivo experiments show that the sensible threshold voltage of the cornea is less than 1.7V, which is much lower than the tactile-visual substitution system previously reported, because of the high sensitivity of the cornea. The experiments also validate the biological safety of the cornea under low voltage.