Visual Prostheses: A Review

An area of recent interest is the development of a visual prosthesis by electrically stimulating neural tissue of blind patients. Major efforts in this area include electrode arrays implanted on or under the retina, around the optic nerve, and on or in the visual cortex. On February 19, 2000, the Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering at University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA) held a symposium which brought together experts from across the US to discuss the state of the art in this research area. This review article gives historical background in the field and summarizes the presentations from this meeting.

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