BHARATHIYAR COLLEGE

OF ENGINEERING AND
TECHNOLOGY

Department of Electronics and Communication

Engineering
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 PRESENTED BY :
A. RASNI 18TC0002
PRESENTED TO :
P.
SHANKARANARAYANAN

Department of Electronics and

Communication Engineering
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BIONIC EYE

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 CONTENTS
 Human Eye
 About Bionic Eye
 Blindness Diseases
 Artificial Silicon Retina
 Multi Unit Artificial Retina Chipset
 Conclusion

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Abstract
Technology has done wonders for the mankind. We
have seen prosthetics that helped overcome handicaps.
Bio medical engineers play a vital role in shaping the
course of these prosthetics. Now it is the turn of
Artificial Vision through Bionic Eyes.
There is hope for the blind in the form of Bionic Eyes.
This technology can add life to their vision less eyes!

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 INTRODUCTION
“There is no lovelier way to
thank God for your sight
Than by giving a helping hand
To those in dark.”
There is no replacement for human sight. It is simply
incomparable because of its capacity to see. Our life is full of
pictures we daily see. Life without sight is dark. And blind
people lead dark lives. As capable human beings, we need to do
something more than just helping a blind person cross the road.
 Human Eye
 We can see when light from an object move through
space and reach our eyes.
  Scattered light from the object enters through the
cornea.
  The light is projected onto the retina. The retina sends
messages to the brain through the optic nerve.
 The brain interprets what the object is.

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 About Bionic Eye
 Bionic eye’ also called a Bio Electronic eye.
 An electronic device which replaces functionality of a part or
whole of the eye.
 The entire electronics system consists of the image sensors,
processors, radio transmitters & receivers, and the retinal chip.

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Internal Structure of
eye

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 More About Human Eye
The important part of an eye that is responsible for
vision is retina. The retina is complex in itself.
This thin membrane at the back of the eye is a vital
part of your ability to see.
Main function of retina is to receive and transmit
images to the brain.

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 Blindness
 Blindness means loss of vision.
 Rods and Cones are biological solar cells in the retina
that convert light to electrical impulses which travel
along the optic nerve to the brain where images are
formed.
 Without them, eyes lose the capacity to see, and are
declared blind.
 Degenerative retinal diseases result in death of
photoreceptors .
 Rod-shaped cells at the retina's periphery are responsible
for night vision and cone-shaped cells at its center
responsible for color vision.
 Bionic Eye : Two
Approaches
 There are two approaches by which we can implant a
bionic eye :

Artificial Silicon Retina – ASR

Multi-unit Artificial Retina Chipset - MARC

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 Artificial Silicon Retina (ASR)
 The ASR is a silicon chip 2 mm in diameter and 1/1000 inch in
thickness.
 It contains approximately 3,500 microscopic solar cells called
"microphotodiodes," each having its own stimulating electrode.
 These micro photodiodes are designed to convert the light
energy from images into thousands of tiny electrical impulses to
stimulate the remaining functional cells of the retina in patients
suffering with AMD and RP types of conditions.
 ASR
 The ASR is powered solely by incident light and does not
require the use of external wires or batteries.
 When surgically implanted under the retina, in a location
known as the sub retinal space, the ASR is designed to produce
visual signals similar to those produced by the photoreceptor
layer.
 From their sub retinal location these artificial "photoelectric"
signals from the ASR are in a position to induce biological
visual signals in the remaining functional retinal cells which
may be processed and sent via the optic nerve to the brain.

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Artificial Silicon Retina
 Multi-unit Artificial Retina Chipset
(MARC)

 The other revolutionary bio electronic eye is the MARC.

 This uses a CCD camera input and a laser beam or RF to
transmit the image into the chip present in the retina.
 Using this, a resolution of 100 pixels is achieved by using a
10x10 array.
 It consists of a platinum or rubber silicon electrode array
placed inside the eye to stimulate the cells.
 More about MARC
 MARC basically consists of
 A secondary receiving coil mounted in close proximity to the
cornea.
 A power and signal transceiver.
 A processing chip.
 A stimulation-current driver and a proposed electrode array
fabricated on a material such as silicone rubber thin silicon or
polyimide with ribbon cables connecting the devices.

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 MARC
 An external miniature low-power CMOS camera worn in an
eyeglass frame will capture an image and transfer the visual
information and power to the intraocular components via RF
telemetry.
 The intraocular prosthesis will decode the signal and
electrically stimulate the retinal neurons through the electrodes
in a manner that corresponds to the image acquired by the
CMOS Camera.
Working
MARC SYSTEM BLOCK
DIAGRAM
 Outside Eye:
The video input to the marc system block is given
through a CCD camera.
This image is further processed using a PDA sized
image processor & to transmit it, we do pulse width
modulation in first stage and then ASK modulation is
done.
 This signal is further amplified using a class E power
amplifier and transmitted using RF telemetry coils.
 Inside Eye:
 The signal received from the RF telemetry coils is power
recovered and then these signal is ASK demodulated and the
data and clock is recovered from this signals .
 These signals are sent to the configuration and control block of
the chip which from its input decode what information has to
be sent to each of the electrodes and sends them this data.
 The electrodes in turn stimulate the cells in the eye so as to
send this stimulation to the brain through optic nerve and help
brain in visualizing the image.
 CHALLENGES
 Current retinal implants provide very low resolution just a few
hundred pixels.
 There are many doubts as to how the brain will react to foreign
signals generated by artificial light sensors.
 Expensive, too clunky and too fragile to withstand decades of
normal wear and tear.
 There are 120 million rods and 6 million cones in the retina of
every healthy human eye. Creating an artificial replacement for
these is no easy task.
 On-Going Development:Argus III
The Argus III will work by taking the image from a camera and
wirelessly transmitting it to an electronics package. That package
will stimulate undamaged retinal tissue using a thin film
transistor electrode array.
 Conclusion
About 1.5 million people worldwide have Retinitis
Pigmentosa, and one in 10 people over the age of 55
has age related macular degeneration.
The invention and implementation of artificial eye
could help those people.
 Bionic eye may not restore the vision completely but
can help patients to least to find their way, recognize
faces, read books, above all lead an independent life .

 
THANK
YOU