For Release:Thursday, June 13th, 2002



For Further Information Contact: Louise Castagna Office Phone: (631)
864-1600 Ext. 212 / Fax: (631) 864-1610 Hilton Hotel, June 10-12:
Phone(212)261-6089 / Fax:(212)261-6090



TOTALLY BLIND MAN DRIVES CAR USING A NEW ELECTRONIC "ARTIFICIAL EYE"



June 13th: A totally blind man has been able to drive a car, using a new
"electronic eye" like the glasses worn by Geordi La Forge the "Chief
Engineer" in Star Trek. "The patient drove slowly and entirely on private
property".cautioned Dr. Wm. H.

Dobelle, addressing the 48th meeting of the American Society for Artificial
Internal Organs, today in New York at the New York Hilton. He added that,
"as our technology improves, and becomes less costly, Braille will become
obsolete, the long cane will become obsolete and the guide dog will become
obsolete as surely as the airplane replaced the steamship".



His team, at The Dobelle Institute (Portugal) Lda. announced that their
functional "artificial eye" for the blind was now available commercially.
They reported eight cases from six countries. Two years ago, the same team
reported implantation of a prototypes in "Jerry" and "Dan", the result of
research which began in 1968.



The systems, implanted in Lisbon, Portugal inApril, 2002, cost $75,000. USD
each, including all hospitalization, and surgical fees. In several cases,
foreign government insurance plans paid all or part of this cost, but the
majority of the money was raised privately by each individual patient.
Additional implants are scheduled to begin in June, 2002. New systems will
cost $98,000.



A miniature television camera is mounted on the lens of sunglasses, sending
its' image to a microcomputer on the belt.

This microcomputer processes the data and decides which electrodes to
stimulate, controlling a stimulator-also worn on the belt. Cables from the
stimulator enter the head through a "percutaneous pedestal", screwed to the
skull, is like a tiny fire hydrant sticking through the skin. This connects
to electrodes on the surface of the visual parts of the brain.



All of the patients lost their vision by trauma and none of them were
candidates for retinal implants. In fact, very few blind patients have an
intact retina and are candidates for retinal implants. All 16 bilateral
implants in eight patients produced excellent displays of "phosphenes",
which is the term for flashes of light created by stimulation of the brain.



Four of the eight patients reported that their phosphenes were brilliantly
colored. These are the first colored phosphenes reported by blind patients,
giving hope that future prostheses will be in full color. The patients have
just started to use the systems--the man driving the car was the first to
have been implanted--and the remaining seven patients are now being
trained.
The device is primarily designed for mobility rather than reading. However,
".rapid advances provide the possibility that the patients will be able to
scan the Internet and watch TV" said Dr. Dobelle.



The patients had been blind from periods ranging from 4 to 57 years at the
time of surgery. One patient, blind from birth in one eye, lost the other
at
age 45. A second patient--who was 77 years old at the time of surgery--lost
both eyes in a mortar attack during World War II. Both patients saw "normal
phosphenes". These cases suggest that neither patient age-nor period of
blindless-is a contradiction for surgery.



All operations were performed at the CUF Hospital in Lisbon, Portugal by
Joao Lobo Antunes, MD, who is Chairman of the Neurosurgery Department at
the
University of Lisbon, along with John P. Girvin, MD, formerly the Chief of
Neurosurgery and Vice President of Medical Affairs at the University of
Western Ontario, and now Chief of Neurosurgery at the King Faisal
Specialist
Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Both Dr. Antunes and Dr. Girvin have
worked on the project for more than twenty-five years. They had
collaborated
on implanting Dan and Jerry, the successful prototype patient in 1979. They
were assisted by Domingos Coiteiro, MD a Portuguese neurosurgeon, and on
some cases by Kenneth R. Smith, Jr., MD who is Director of the Division of
Neurological Surgery at St. Louis University Health Sciences Center.

For an illustration of the artificial vision system, click
http://www.dobelle.com/vision/vision.jpg

THE DOBELLE INSTITUTE (PORTUGAL) LDA.

Artificial Vision for the Blind.

Presentation at, ASAIO, New York Hilton Hotel, Thursday, June

13th, 2002.



Caption A tiny camera on the right lens of the patients' sunglasses
transmits information to computer system on his belt. This system them
sends
signals through a percutaneous pedestal to electrodes implanted on the
surface of the brain.



Additional Graphics For video tapes (Beta) or reproduction quality
photographs (including the patient driving a car) transmitted as hard copy
or electronically over the internet, please contact us by telephone, fax or
e-mail:



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