A Review on Visual Neuroprosthetic Systems

The ageing of population and the progression of certain diseases are increasing the number of people affected by blindness, so an effort is being made by researchers to bring new solutions to restore some form of functional vision to the blind. One of the research fields working in this line is visual neuroprosthetics, which seeks to elicit visual sensations in unsighted individuals by delivering controlled electrical charges in specific locations of their visual pathways. There are a large number of patents in this field, as this technology has been under research for decades. This paper reviews the fundamentals of visual neuroprosthetics and describes latest patents related to these biomedical devices. Patents, in this case can be regarded not only as a mechanism to protect intellectual property and commercial interests, but also as a valuable source of information on current and past developments for researchers, who usually limit their inputs for research to journal papers and books.