As early as 2013, clinically-blind people in Australia could find a new hope to see again as researchers from Monash University rolls out the human trials for a bionic eye implant.

“We have made significant progress since beginning last year and are confident we will have a device that could treat the majority of patients who are clinically blind,” said Professor Arthur Lowery, Director of the Monash Vision Group (MVG).

According to Vision Australia, 292, 700 Australians are considered blind or vision-impaired in 2004. In Australia, over 50,000 people are considered clinically-blind. Globally, the number exceeds 160 million. The research could benefit up to 85% of clinically blind persons including those affected by Diabetic Retinopathy, Glaucoma and Macular Degeneration., three most common untreatable causes of blindness in Australia.

“Our device will directly stimulate the brain’s vision centre using a miniaturised implant. The implant is fed with signals from a camera that have been processed to extract the most useful information, depending on what the user needs,” Prof Lowery said.

“The implant has many tiles, each with 45 electrodes, designed to give over 650 pixels in all. Due to the powerful and adaptable signal processing, we believe this number of electrodes can provide invaluable situational awareness to the user.”
“The device can also be tuned for use in different environments, both indoors and outdoors."

The MVG approach has a number of advantages over other bionic eye technologies, in that it does not require a functioning eyeball or optic nerve or visual pathways from the eye to the brain.

Prof Jeffrey Rosenfeld, chief surgeon on the project from The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, believes that this approach will suit patients who have lost their sight through traumatic injury or tumors. It will also be suitable for many patients with diseases affecting the eye itself, such as glaucoma and retinal disorders.

“Our implant features an array of electrodes inserted into the surface layers of the brain at the back of the head where the V1 vision region resides. The V1 region has a relatively large surface area compared with the retina, so can potentially provide better resolution than other approaches,” Prof Rosenfeld said.

Established in April 2010, MVG consists of more than 20 leaders in physiology, neurosurgery, ophthalmology, electrical and electronic engineering, mechanical and materials engineering, mathematics and immunology. The MVG is a recipient of an $8 million grant from the Australian Research Council,

The MVG’s key partners include Monash University, Grey Innovation, Alfred Health and MiniFab, with the group also exploring the potential to collaborate with other leading researchers and engineers from Australia, the US and UK.

Source: Monash University