The following article on the Dobelle artificial vision system
appears in this month's Popular Mechanics magazine:

Progress In Artificial Vision. By Mark Cina.

Jens Smith opens the car door, sits behind the wheel, turns the
ignition and jets off across the parking lot.

Wearing sunglasses similar to the ones worn by Geordi La
Forge, the "chief engineer" from "Star Trek: The Next
Generation," he drives, careful not to bump into a building or
dumpster.

Eventually, he stops the car and puts it in Reverse. He pops his
head out the window to see better because the images in the
rearview mirror are too small. He slowly presses the gas, then
the brake, and stops.

Not bad for a blind person.

Granted, he was driving slowly and in a parking lot on private
property.Still, watching this unusual achievement, captured on
video and shown at the 48th annual American Society for Artificial
Internal Organs conference June 13, 2002 in New York City, is as
engaging as it is remarkable.

Jens, a 38-year-old Canadian man whose last name has been
changed to protect his privacy, was able to drive thanks to the
Artificial Eye, which has given him a rudimentary sense of vision.
Eight people, who lost their vision to trauma, have the same
device implanted.

Dr. William H. Dobelle is chief executive officer of The Dobelle
Institute of Commack, N.Y., which developed the electronic eye.
He says the technology is the future in eye care advancement for
the blind.

"As our technology improves and becomes less costly, Braille,
the long cane and the guide dog will become obsolete as surely
as the airplane replaced the steamship," Dobelle says.

Dobelle is several years from getting Food and Drug
Administration approval for his device, he says. And, if approved,
it is unlikely insurance companies would pay for the 4-hour,
$75,000 operation, currently performed in hospitals in Portugal.

How It Works.

The electronic eye "sees" using what appears to be a
pair of sunglasses and a belt.

A miniature television camera, mounted on the lens of
the sunglasses, sends images to a microcomputer on
the belt. From there, the microcomputer processes the
data, decides which electrodes to stimulate and sends
a message to a stimulator worn on the belt.

Cables from the stimulator enter the head through a
percutaneous pedestal that is screwed to the
skull--picture a tiny black fire hydrant sticking through
the skin. This connects to electrodes on the surface of
the visual cortex of the brain.

Once the electric stimulator has received its
instructions from the computer, it crates phosphenes,
or flashes of light, which Dobelle describes as "stars in
the sky." Over time, if all goes well, the patient's vision
progresses, and he is able to see not just bursts of
light, but outlines of images.

Keith Theobald, 42, of Cincinnati, who had the
operation in April, remembers when he saw his first
flash of light.

"It was like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel," he
says of the green phosphenes he sees today. "I
wanted to cry my eyes out."

Theobold, who was paralyzed after an automobile
accident four years ago, lost his vision after surgery.
"This is going to give me back my independence," the
former construction manager says. "It's something
very exciting."

His wife, Jackie, says she is not expecting his sight to
return completely, but any vision is better than none at
all.

"He might not be able to see his children's facial
features," she says, "but maybe he will at least be able
to see how tall they are."

Source URL:

http://popularmechanics.com/science/medicine/2002/6/artificial_vision/

Joseph J. Lazzaro
HTTP://JoeLazzaro.Com