Occipital Lobe Visual Prosthesis With Pre-Inverted Image Signals
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for transmitting visual information to the occipital lobe after eye loss or impairment are inefficient and can cause significant side effects due to the brain's difficulty in inverting images, leading to prolonged adaptation and discomfort.
Innovation Solution
An occipital lobe stimulation device with Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) and photoreceptors mimicking rods and cones, an inverter to replicate natural image inversion, and magnetized output/input devices for direct occipital lobe connection, allowing for efficient image transmission without prolonged adaptation or side effects.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If direct occipital lobe stimulation is implemented without image inversion, then device complexity is reduced, but the brain requires prolonged adaptation time and produces side effects such as headaches and nausea
Solution Approach 1:
The inverter performs image inversion in advance before the visual information reaches the occipital lobe, replicating the natural processing that occurs in the optic nerve and visual cortex. This preliminary inversion prevents the brain from needing to adapt later, thereby reducing adaptation time and eliminating associated side effects while maintaining a manageable device complexity through modular integration.
2Ease of manufacture
If photoreceptors directly connect to occipital lobe without inversion, then manufacturing cost is reduced, but image processing efficiency decreases and causes discomfort
Solution Approach 1:
The inverter serves as an intermediary component between the photoreceptors and the occipital lobe connection. It processes the visual information by inverting the image data before transmission, ensuring that the occipital lobe receives properly oriented visual information. This intermediary function maintains high image processing efficiency and prevents discomfort while being integrated into the device architecture at a manageable manufacturing cost.
3Reliability
If natural image inversion process is replicated in the device, then visual information understanding is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The device replaces the natural biological inversion process occurring in the human visual system (optic nerve and visual cortex) with an artificial inverter component. This substitution replicates the essential function of image inversion in a controlled manner, ensuring that visual information is properly processed and understood by the occipital lobe. The mechanical/electronic implementation achieves reliable visual information understanding while keeping device complexity manageable through efficient design and integration.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Facilitates efficient image processing by the occipital lobe with reduced side effects such as headaches and nausea, enabling quicker adaptation and improved understanding of visual information.
Implementation Method 1
Glasses With Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) and Photoreceptors
Implementation Method 2
Photons of light emitted from the LEDs will 'bounce off' (that is to say, 'reflect off') the object in front and return to the lenses
Implementation Method 3
The photoreceptors receive the photons of light which have bounced back from the object, and these take the place of or act similarly as would normally functioning, or normally existing, rods and cones in the eye
Data Source
AI summary
Occipital lobe stimulation device comprising normal looking glasses having a frame portion with side portions and lens portions, provided together with a battery-powered plurality of Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs) fixed around an anterior periphery of the frame portion for emitting photons of light to reflect off of an object in the outside world, and a plurality of photoreceptors dispersed across and retained in the lens portions, the photoreceptors being connected via wires to corresponding inverters in the side portions which are also wire connected to output devices on a strap an enabling connection to corresponding input devices surgically implanted and connected to the user's occipital lobes, for transmitting image information relating to the object to the user's occipital lobes to enable the user's brain to make use of the information.