Israel develops technology to help visually impaired people

A group of Israeli scientists from Bar-Ilan University has developed technology that can help innate blind people to see it, with the help of an electronic biological contact lens.

This technology includes a camera that receives visual information from the environment and transmits signals into an electronic biological contact lens. This lens transmits signals through the electrodes into the cornea, from there to the sensory areas of the brain, stimulating simulation of visual information. Biological lenses stimulate corneal nerves in the outer part of the eye, which are then connected to the brain's sensory information processing area.

A tiny camera, with an image sensor and an electronic signal amplifier located outside the patient's body, can be attached to eyeglasses or a mobile device. Scientists use super-resolution techniques to encode multi-pixel images and compress them into several pixels.

Professor Zeev Zalevsky, who led the study, explained that coding helps compress visual images, reducing the number of pixels but allowing the transmission of visual information similar to that of a healthy person.

After being electronically amplified, compressed information is transmitted by wireless technology from cameras to biological contact lenses in the eyes. This lens will have about 10,000 tiny electrodes that help simulate the cornea. Stimulation is transmitted from the cornea through the nervous system to the brain areas processing visual information. In this way, even innate blinds can see.

Professor Zeev Zalevsky affirmed that this technology brings a lot of benefits to mankind, especially bringing light to innate blinds without surgery or hurting the vital senses and organs of body.

Currently this technology has not been clinically tested, but in the past few months, the feasibility of the system has been tested, helping the tester see a part of black, white and gray with a resolution of less than 100 points. image.

According to Professor Zalevsky, real lenses will consist of 10,000 electrodes that help receive visual images with higher resolution and possibly future colors.