BIOENGINEERING AN ARTIFICIAL EYE - A REVIEW

Abstract

Retinal degenerative diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are the major significant contributors to unavoidable blindness in the world. In the past few years, the employment of artificial means to treat extreme vision impairment has come closer to reality. Recently many research groups are spending billions of dollars towards effective solutions to restore a rudimentary sense of vision to the blind. One such intervention is the bionic eye or the bioelectronic eye. The visual prosthesis delivers the image information from the outside world to the natural visual system, which enables the subject to receive a meaningful perception of the image. This paper provides an overview of the electronic hardware units, technical design aspects and different approaches in the implant placement and some technical challenges confronted when trying to enhance the functional quality of such devices.