Essay On Visual Prosthetics

The Promising Future for Retinal Visual Prosthesis

The human eye is a complex organ capable of harnessing light and translating it into a message that the brain uses to create an image. There are many structure in both the eye and the brain that are responsible for creating an image. The structures in the eye function to collect light from the environment, focus it, and transform it into an electrical impulse that the brain can interpret. The first of these structures is the iris. The iris expands and contracts in response the amount of light present in the environment and regulates the amount of light that enters the eye at the pupil (Warren, 2016). The pupil is the small, black opening in the center of the eye. Both the pupil and the iris …show more content…
Every prosthetic focuses on correcting one part of the visual mechanism so that the entire mechanism can function as a whole. Visual prosthetics fall under two different categories. The first category includes prosthetics that are implanted in the eye. These usually require less invasive surgery for installation than optic nerve implants because surgery involves only the eye and does not require tampering with the skull around the eye (Pezaris et al, 2009). Research on in-eye prosthetics mainly focuses on developing a retinal prosthetic. A positive aspect to developing a retinal prosthetic is that it can restore the entire field of vision. Most retinal prosthetics are comprised of a collection of electrodes that function in the same way that a photoreceptor cell in the retina would (Pezaris et al, 2009). The electrode fit on to a small surface and do not require surgical attachment to the eye, they are just imbedded in the retina. Light stimulates the implant, which in turn releases an electrical impulse to the surrounding nerve endings, which are then collected and transmitted to the brain to create an