ScienceDaily (Oct. 20, 2009)
(Credit: Caltech/Wolfgang Fink, Mark Tarbell)
Researchers have finally developed a way to objectively evaluate the performance of visual prostheses. It is a small mobile robotic platform (pictured above) named CYCLOPS. CYCLOPS allows scientists to better assess what the blind can see with a retinal implant. It also allows scientists to identify ways to improve upon the implants.
CYCLOPS will replace the two patient subpopulations that have been used traditionally to test these new prostheses: the blind who have an artifical retina and sighted patients who "downgrade" their vision in an attempt to replicate a blind person's experience. Both of these subpopulations present substantial obstacles in the pursuit of unbiased and scientifically sound data. Statistical issues as well as stamina problems limit the data that can be obtained from the blind population with artificial retinas. Not only are there relatively few patients who have undergone this operation, but these patients also tend to not be able to endure prolonged periods of testing. Therefore, this population is not ideal, because the artificial vision field demands exhaustive and extensive clinical testing. Sighted patients are also less-than-ideal. A sighted person's brain is very apt at processing poor-quality images and supplementing them with details; this is a skill that is very helpful when a sighted person encounters dim light, but it also makes them poor test subjects for visual prostheses.
The CYCLOPS is the much needed answer to the call for impartial testing subjects in the artificial vision field. Its camera, which can make left-to-right and up-and-down head movements, collects the visual input that an artificial retina would also collect. The camera can be adjusted to various arrays of pixels that would mimic those found in an artificial retina implant. These images are then processed on the onboard computing platform, which "does real-time processing." However, the CYCLOPS is still not entirely ready to make truly independent movements, but scientists are confident that they will reach that level soon.
In the meantime, the benefits of the CYCLOPS are still rather incredible. Researchers can perform countless tests without the worries of exhausting a patient or obtaining unreliable data. Other applications of the CYCLOPS would include enhancing workplace or living environments to be more "blind-friendly" and pre-screening particular versions of prostheses and their on-board image-processing software. The CYCLOPS means that the artificial vision field can finally undertake even more extensive prostheses trials, which could translate to huge leap forwards in this field in the very near future.
(Credit: Caltech/Wolfgang Fink, Mark Tarbell)Researchers have finally developed a way to objectively evaluate the performance of visual prostheses. It is a small mobile robotic platform (pictured above) named CYCLOPS. CYCLOPS allows scientists to better assess what the blind can see with a retinal implant. It also allows scientists to identify ways to improve upon the implants.
CYCLOPS will replace the two patient subpopulations that have been used traditionally to test these new prostheses: the blind who have an artifical retina and sighted patients who "downgrade" their vision in an attempt to replicate a blind person's experience. Both of these subpopulations present substantial obstacles in the pursuit of unbiased and scientifically sound data. Statistical issues as well as stamina problems limit the data that can be obtained from the blind population with artificial retinas. Not only are there relatively few patients who have undergone this operation, but these patients also tend to not be able to endure prolonged periods of testing. Therefore, this population is not ideal, because the artificial vision field demands exhaustive and extensive clinical testing. Sighted patients are also less-than-ideal. A sighted person's brain is very apt at processing poor-quality images and supplementing them with details; this is a skill that is very helpful when a sighted person encounters dim light, but it also makes them poor test subjects for visual prostheses.
The CYCLOPS is the much needed answer to the call for impartial testing subjects in the artificial vision field. Its camera, which can make left-to-right and up-and-down head movements, collects the visual input that an artificial retina would also collect. The camera can be adjusted to various arrays of pixels that would mimic those found in an artificial retina implant. These images are then processed on the onboard computing platform, which "does real-time processing." However, the CYCLOPS is still not entirely ready to make truly independent movements, but scientists are confident that they will reach that level soon.
In the meantime, the benefits of the CYCLOPS are still rather incredible. Researchers can perform countless tests without the worries of exhausting a patient or obtaining unreliable data. Other applications of the CYCLOPS would include enhancing workplace or living environments to be more "blind-friendly" and pre-screening particular versions of prostheses and their on-board image-processing software. The CYCLOPS means that the artificial vision field can finally undertake even more extensive prostheses trials, which could translate to huge leap forwards in this field in the very near future.
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