Development of a Cortical Visual Neuroprostheses for the Blind

A bioinspired visual neuroprostheses, interfaced with the occipital cortex, as a means through which a limited but useful visual sense could be restored to profoundly blind people is proposed. While the full restoration of vision is unlikely in the near future, the discrimination of shape and location of objects could allow blind subjects to `navigate' in a familiar environment and to read enlarged text, resulting in a substantial improvement in the quality of life of blind and visually impaired persons. The whole system is described including the bioinspired visual coder, the current source neural stimulator and the penetrating cortical multielectrode array. Finally this approach emphasize the role of neural plasticity to achieve the desired behaviour of the system.