Template for poster presentations

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• Elliot Whaley
• Department of Computer Sciences
• Villanova University

Bionic Vision Brining together computer science,
engineering and biology

• William Dobelle's first prototype was an implant
  in to a blind man, in 1978. A single-array BCI
  containing 68 electrodes was implanted onto his
  visual cortex.

BCI measures minute differences in the voltage
between neutrons. The signal is then amplified
and filtered. Then interpreted by a computer
program or device. A reverse BCI has the
computer converts signal from a camera to trigger
the necessary neurons

• Prototype created by Babax Parviz at the
  University of Washington.
• Current results
• Contains electronic circuit and red LED lights
  for display.
• Tested on a rabbit for 20 minutes with no side
  effects.
• Expected Results
• A display of a few pixels should be operational
  fairly quickly.
• Zoom into distant objects and display useful
  information in front of the eye.
• Wirelessly connect to devices such as laptops and
  iphones.

• In 2002, Jens Naumann one of 16 paying patients
  to receive Dobelles second generation implant,
  one of the first commercial uses of BCIs.

Major Areas of Bionic Vision
Medical Procedures /aiding the blind
Example Brain machine interface systems (BCI)
Strengths Can give vision back to the blind or
aid those who are blind. Weakness- Can be
cumbersome due to its size. Costly May involve
surgery
Contact lenses with a computer chip Example
lenses created by the University of
Wash Strengths- Portable, requires no surgery
Weaknesses- Have not been created yet, energy
source not yet developed, only available for
people with eyes.

• SWAN system which stands for System for
  Wearable Audio Navigation. It provides audio
  directions to guide the blind.
• The system works in 2 ways
• Tells the user of up coming obstacles
• Tells the user how far to walk and in what
  direction.

Wearable Vision aids Example EyeTap

Strengths-Can record your life and play
it back to you while improving
vision. Weakness-Problem of inequiveillance
which is the imbalance between surveillance and
sousveillance.
Features
. This device started as a big clumpy device over
the eyes however, in the past 30 years its
development has led to smaller more visually
attractive device resembling everyday eyeglasses

• functions as a camera
• functions as a display.
• electronic visual aid
• surveillance system
• a lifelong cyborglog

The EyeTap is an experience capturing system
Rays of light are reflected by the diverter,
which is a double-sided mirror. The rays of light
are collected by a sensor camera. The camera data
is processed and the aremac redisplays the image
as rays of light. The rays are again reflected
off the diverter and the user perceives the
virtual light as either an image or a computer
mediated version of the real world.

• Adaptive optics
• a technique originally designed to sharpen images
  for military surveillance
• adaptive optics allows people to see at high
  resolution
• David R. Williams of the University of Rochester
  has developed an approach to obtain this vision
• this method is used to help cure bad vision

• Scene specific imaging
• bionic vision can be adjusted depending on the
  scene type
• scene tare translated into an algorithm in order
  to be categorized
• brings together aspects of image that are known
  to influence the attention of the human viewer

Conclusions Bionic Vision methods and techniques
have come a long way in aiding the blind and
pushing human vision beyond its limits. Building
on past successes the future for bionic vision is
within sight!