2020 8th International Conference on Reliability, Infocom Technologies and Optimization (Trends and Future Directions) (ICRITO)

Amity University, Noida, India. June 4-5, 2020

Bionic Eye-A Review

Avali Banerjee S.B.Amreen Saba Sangeeta Rana Samayita Chakraborty

Department of Electronics &
Communication Engineering
Guru Nanak Institute of
Technology
157/F, Nilgunj Road, Sodepur,
Kolkata, India
avalighosh@gmail.com
Department of Electronics &
Communication Engineering
Guru Nanak Institute of
Technology
157/Nilgunj Road, Sodepur,
Kolkata,India
Department of Electronics &
Communication Engineering
Guru Nanak Institute of
Technology
157/F, Nilgunj Road, Sodepur,
Kolkata, India
Department of Electronics &
Communication Engineering
Guru Nanak Institute of
Technology
157/F, Nilgunj Road, Sodepur,
Kolkata, India

Abstract—Blindness is a devastating disease which can
happen due to various reasons such as due to retinitis
pigmentosa (RP) and many other age-related macular
degenerations (AMD) . In this kind of disease, the
photoreceptor cells gets degenerated and damages the retina
and due to which a person losses his vision power. Therefore,
bionic eye plays a vital part by restoring the vision.
Technologies that are involved in bionic eyes are-multiple unit
artificial retina chip system (MARC), artificial silicon retina
system (ASR), ARGUS II, MIT HARVARD device.
Holographic technology is used by which a person can again
live a new life independently. This method take place through a
small surgery replacing complicated surgeries.
An advancement in the present research can be done by
improving the technology is described in this paper. The
quality of images to the bionic eye will be more clear by
increasing the number of electrodes in the retinal implant.
Platinum and iridium are currently used for implants but these
metals deteriorates within 5 to 10 years. Instead of these metals
if diamond device are implanted inside the eye then it will not
deteriorate.
Keywords—Bionic Eye, vision, retina, MARC system, ASR,
Retinitis Pigmentosa, Macular Degeneration
I. INTRODUCTION
World Health Organization has estimated that almost 40
million blind people are across the world. Blindness occurs
due to Retinitis Pigmentosa, Macular Degeneration, and
other age-related macular degenerations. Retinitis
Pigmentosa (RP) is a type of inherited disease which
damages the light sensitive rods and cones. Rods and cones
are mainly located in the retina. The first sign of Retinitis
Pigmentosa is night blindness. It starts with degrading the
side vision, after some times the patient can see only in one
direction straight ahead. This type of vision is often regarded
as tunnel vision because the patient start feeling that he/she is
in a tunnel. After that the ability of vision is completely lost.
Macular Degeneration is more serious than cataract and
glaucoma. This disease starts with the central portion of the
retina. The Macula is the central and most sensitive area. The
function of macula is to collect the information or images
received at the center of the field of vision and all those
information is send to the optic nerve to the brain. Images are
not received correctly due to Macular Degradation diseases.
After some time, the person gets blurred vision and then
slowly the central vision is completely and permanently lost.
Bionic eye is basically a prosthesis to those who are
suffering from Retinitis Pigmentosa, Macular Degeneration,
and other age-related blindness. Bionic eye is a short form of
Bioelectronics eye. It is implanted behind the retina. The
damaged optic nerve is also replaced by thin wire. Its main
aim is to transmit the light and information to the brain.
The patient needs to undergo a small surgery whose time
duration is very less as compared to complicated surgery.
After surgery the patient needs to wear special glasses having
battery, camera and transmitter which sends the information
to the implanted chip. According to scientist the bionic eye
will last for at least 10 years. Bionic eye is a hope to the
visionless people and by using this technology the person can
read large letters, words, sentences or do other activities of
daily life. By improvement in technology a natural sight can
be obtained by using bionic eye.
The advancement of bionic eye can be done by
improving the quality of image. The quality of image can be
improved by increasing the number of electrodes in the
retinal implant so that the bionic eye gets more cleared
vision.
II. MOTIVATION
The images as seen by the bionic eyes are not clear like
the normal vision but are black and white dots. These dotted
images do not tell the blind people about the distance at
which the object is from the person as in the case of normal
eye. The vision processing region in our brain judges about
the distance and depth of objects. So one of the improvement
is needed to make people understand about the distance and
which can be achieved with the help of external devices
(camera and video processor). A distance sensing camera is
used to predict the distance between a particular object and
the person. A depth camera is used to identify an object
whether it is a 2-D object or 3-D by determining the depth of
an object. Thermal camera can be also used to differentiate
between items and human beings.
Platinum and Iridium are currently used for implants.
Iridium is a transition metal which occurs as natural alloy of
platinum and Osmium. Iridium is not medically used because
it is toxic in nature and does not have any biological
property. Aluminium is a post-transition element which
occurs in abundance percentage. It is found in more than 260
minerals and non-toxic in nature. Therefore, Aluminium is
medically used in Dentistry, Pharmaceutical industry,
Surgical instruments etc. The hardest metals deteriorate
within 5 to 10 years hence diamond device is made and

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implanted inside the eye. Diamond device will not
deteriorate or will not be damaged by any other means.
Diamond is an expensive item so Aluminium can be used
instead of Diamond. Aluminium is light-weighted, non-
ferrous metal (metal other than diamond and steel) and is
also cheaper.
x Ciliary part secretes the aqueous humour and is
demarcated from the optical part by a very small
wavy area.
x Iridial part lies in ciliary body and is made up of
pigmented cells.

Aluminium corrosion is known as aluminium oxide, a
very hard metal which protects aluminium from further
corrosion. It is excellent in corrosion resistance and
workability. Aluminium is also used in various equipment
such as in orthopaedic, endoscopic, craniomaxillofacial,
spine, trauma, surgical instruments and many other general
hospital equipments.
III. NECESSITY OF BIONIC
Patient suffering from retinitis pigmentosa and age -
related macular degeneration -AMD are in need of bionic
eye. Bionic eye can also be called as artificial eye as it
provides vision to the visionless people with the help of
electronic devices. In bionic eye the image is captured by the
camera and sent to the brain by a processor. Message
receiving and sending are done by an electronic technique.
Electric stimulation of retinal neurons can produce light
perception in patient by which a person can recognize the
object in front of them and can do daily life work without
depending on others. Therefore, bionic eye is hope to those
visionless people because they can start living their life again
independently.
The eyes mainly works on two functions known as
focusing and receptor.
D. Focusing part
In this part light is reflected to the focus on the
photoreceptor of retina. In the focusing part cornea,
conjunctiva, lens, aqueous humour and vitreous humour
works.
E. Receptor Part
In this part retina, nerve fibres, cerebral hemisphere plays
an important part. The image formed by the retina are first
inverted and smaller than the original object. Then, the
generated sensory impulses carried out by the optic nerves to
the visual part of cerebral hemispheres. All the information
are collected and arranged accordingly so that an individual
recognizes the original shape or pattern of the object[5].

IV. HUMAN EYE

Humaneye is located in bony orbital sockets or cavities
and are surrounded by tissues. The eyeball has a transparent
orbit which is known as cornea. The cornea has various
layers such as: Outer fibrous coat, middle vascular coat and
inner nervous coat and the retina.
Fig. 1. Human eye.
A. Fibrous coat
V. BIONIC EYE
In this coat eye ball is protected as it is a thick layer and
provides firm surface for the insertion of layers. It also The main objective of bionic eye is to provide vision to
involves with: Sclera or sclerotic and cornea. those people who are suffering from retinal diseases. By
implementing bionic eye in human eye will able to make a
B. Vascular coat or Uvea person to recognize the object which are in front of him/her.
At the initial stage a person starts recognizing a tiny flashes
It is the middle layer or coat of the eyeball. It has three in front of him/her, as the days passes, they start learning
parts : Choroid, Iris, Ciliary Body. how to estimate all the tiny flashing lights together and make
Choride is made by connective tissues with with images by which they can analyze the object, by this process
pigmented cells and muscles. It prevent reflection of light in a person can independently do the daily works of life.
the eye.
The sclera and cornea sharply blends in cavity of the
eyeball and forms coloured partition and this partition is
known as Irish.
In the peripheral margin of Irish, the vascular coat is
considered as thicker, hence less vascular and less pigmented
and this specified part of vascular cost is called ciliary body.

C. Retina or Neurosensory layer

It is the deepest layer of eyeball. It mainly consist of
three parts: Optic part, Ciliary part, Iridial part.
x Number Optic part is linked with the choroid and has
four layers: pigmented outer layer, peripheral layer,
middle layer, and inner layer. Fig. 2. Bionic eye.

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 VI. WORKING PRINCIPLE OF BIONIC EYE
The Bionic eye works similarly as the normal eye but the
only difference is that it works on electronic components.
The first steps starts with capturing the images which are in
front of it and then it sends to the video processor. The
camera and video processor are attached to the sunglass and
further the images are send to the receiver which is located
outside the eye. Then the images are encoded into data and
after encoding it is converted in electrical signals and further
send to the receiver which is located outside the eye. The
receiver after receiving the data, through a cable passes the
data to the electrode which is implanted on the retina. The
electrode further send messages to the brain through the optic
nerves and at last the brain receives the message.
The artificial bionic eye includes the following
components which are described below
x Digital camera is embedded into a pair of glasses.
The camera capturing images are done by pupil’s
movements by monitoring the front of the eye using
Infrared illumination. Its main aim is to capture real
time images and send to the chip.
x In video processing microchip the images are
captured serially and is been processed and convert
to electrical pulses which is mostly light and dark
and further sends to the transmitter.
x Transmitter is used to transmit the pulse to the
receiver wirelessly.
x Receiver sends the pulses to the retinal implant by a
wire which is as thin as a hair.
x Retinal implant is composed of an array of
electrodes on a chip which is about 1mm by 1mm in
size which further triggers the pulse emission.
Further the pulse travels through the optic nerves to
the brain where vision is being processed and then
the brain starts analysing the image.
At first, the patient can only recognize tiny flash of light
but after some time when the patient gets to understand then
starts arranging those flashy lights together to form an image
in the brain and starts recognizing the images. By this
process a person can do daily works of life without
depending on others.
Fig. 3. Working of Bionic eye.
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A. Technologies involved in bionic eyes
1) Artificial Silicon Retina
ASR is basically a solid state chip which has an array of
photoreceptors. It is implanted in the sub retinal space. It
does the work of photoreceptor layer. The works of
photoreceptor is to produce visual signals. The ASR chip is
almost 2mm in diameter and 1/1000 inch in thickness. It
consist of almost 3,500 microscopic solar cell called micro-
photodiodes. The main aim of micro-photodiodes are to
convert the light energy into tiny electrical impulses to
stimulate the remaining functional cells of retina. It does not
require any battery. While using the photoreceptor the visual
signal can be easily produced same as photoreceptor. These
signals are sent via optic nerves to the brain. As every
technologies has its own advantage and limitations. The
advantages is ASR takes the job of damaged photoreceptor
cells .
The problem associated with the ASR prosthetics is that
the sub retinal prosthetic approach requires an additional
source of energy to power the implant[5].
2) MARC system
The multiple unit artificial retina system composed of a
camera, wires, transceiver, chip, stimulation-current driver,
silicon rubbers and cables. The camera captures the images
which is in front of it and then the images are encoded and
transmitted to the transceiver. It is basically a signal which
contains encoded data and further rectified and filtered so
that the MARC system can be able to extract the data and
clock signals, the information fetched are stimulated on the
retina.
Fig. 4. MARC system.
The MARC system consist of two parts which separately
reside exterior and interior to the eyeball. Each part is
equipped with both a transmitter and a receiver. The primary
coil can be driven with a 0.5-10 MHz carrier signal,
accompanied by a 10 kHz amplitude modulated (AM/ASK)
signal which provides data for setting the configuration of
the stimulating electrodes. A DC power supply is obtained
by the rectification of the incoming RF signal. The receiver
on the secondary side extracts four bits of data for each pixel
from the incoming RF signal and provides filtering,
demodulation, and amplification. The extracted data is
interpreted by the electrode signal driver which finally
generates appropriate currents for the stimulating electrodes
in terms of magnitude, pulse width, and frequency .
The MARC system there is a very effective system
because in this system the cell activation in low light
conditions are been removed and compact better in heat
dissipation[5].
 VII. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
A. Advantages
x Surgeries are not complicated.
x The time duration of the surgery is very short as
compared to the complicated surgery.
x Bionic eyes provides vision to those who are
suffering from age related macular degeneration and
retinitis pigmentosa.
x Chip size is very small so it can be easily placed.
x Present generation bionic eye last for 10 to 20 years.
x Improvements are still in progress and quality of
images are improving day by day.
B. Disadvantages
x Extra circuitry required for downstream electrical
input.
x The Bionic eye cannot help the people who are blind
by birth.
x It is not useful for glaucoma patient.
x Natural vision cannot be provided.
x Very expensive almost 20 lakh rupees to set bionic
eye in human body.
VIII. CONCLUSION
Bionic eye is a hope for the visionless people and people
suffering from retinal diseases. As every technology has its
own limitations and possibilities. Bionic eyes at present
cannot provide natural images but can be used to support to
the visionless people. As we have seen in the last few
decades that there is a huge improvement in the image
quality. As the Argus II has only 16 electrodes and by
increasing the number of electrodes to more than 1000 in
near future than a person using bionic eye can start
recognizing the facial expression and start seeing the
coloured objects.
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IX. FUTURE SCOPE
Future iterations of the Argus II system will likely feature
advanced implants with higher numbers of electrodes that are
capable of producing sharper, more functional vision for
people who are blind from retinitis pigmentosa and other
retinal diseases, including macular degeneration. It is
possible future implants may also be able to produce some
degree of colour vision. A bionic eye’s person is also be able
to zoom in and out of our field of vision, record what a
bionic eye’s person see, and automatically sync it to the net
with our Wi-Fi-ready eyes.
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