An overview of vision processing in implantable prosthetic vision

Electrically stimulating prosthetic vision devices offer a potential therapy to blind individuals. There are currently two multi-centre trials of devices by Second Sight Medical Products, and by Zrenner's group at University of Tuebingen. In Australia, Bionic Vision Australia has a retinal implant trial with three patients. Current implants provide restricted information for implantees, and some limitations are likely to remain in the future. To provide a substantial benefit to individual's abilities to perform key tasks such as orientation and mobility, activities of daily living, reading and face recognition there is much work to be done. Vision processing's role is to ensure the key visual information is available to undertake tasks given these limitations. This paper frames the background and challenges in vision processing for implantable prosthetic vision, and gives an overview of recent work.