Generating virtual channels in retinal prostheses

Author

Choi, Charles T M ; You, Shen Jen

Author_Institution

Dept. of Comput. Sci. & Inst. of Biomed. Eng., Nat. Chiao Tung Univ., Hsinchu, Taiwan

fYear

2010

fDate

9-12 May 2010

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

1

Abstract

Channel interaction generated by simultaneous electrical stimulation of neighboring electrodes is generally undesirable. However, channels interaction, or virtual channels, can be used in a controlled manner to increase the number of perceptible electrodes for retinal prosthesis patients. Virtual channels have been used successfully in the cochlear prosthesis systems to increase the number of perceptible channels or electrodes. In this paper, we analyze and study the condition for generating virtual channels in retinal prostheses. A finite element model of the retina with four electrodes was created. The conditions for generating virtual channels were studied by adjusting the ratio of the input voltage applied to neighboring electrodes. Experimental studies in cochlear prostheses show the existence and usefulness of virtual channels.

Keywords

biomedical electrodes; eye; finite element analysis; neurophysiology; prosthetics; vision defects; visual perception; channel interaction; electrical stimulation; finite element model; perceptible channel; perceptible electrode; retinal prosthesis; virtual channel; Biomedical electrodes; Biomedical engineering; Computer science; Electrical stimulation; Finite element methods; Neural prosthesis; Prosthetics; Retina; Visual prosthesis; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electromagnetic Field Computation (CEFC), 2010 14th Biennial IEEE Conference on

Conference_Location

Chicago, IL

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-7059-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CEFC.2010.5481300

Filename

5481300