Vision rehabilitation in case of blindness

Claude Veraart, Neural Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory, Universite de

Abstract
Perspective of vision rehabilitation in case of blindness depends on the time of occurrence of the visual loss. In case of early blindness sensory substituting systems could be helpful. These are non-invasive artificial vision systems that pick up and process visual information and transform it into stimulation of an intact sensory system such as audition or tact using a suitable translation code. On the other hand, provided the visual system has been fully developed before blindness occurrence, a visual prosthesis could be considered. Visual prostheses are invasive artificial vision systems that pick up and process visual information and translate it into electrical stimulation of a supposedly intact part of the still functional visual system of a completely blind person. Vision rehabilitation results obtained using either sensory substitution in case of early blindness, or optic nerve stimulation in case of retinitis pigmentosa are reported and discussed in this paper.

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