Hardware architecture of a neural net based retina implant for patients suffering from retinitis pigmentosa

Abstract

This work describes the architecture and planned realization of components for a retina implant which includes a sensory device for image acquisition, biologically inspired neural nets for modeling and computation of receptive field functions, and a human interface for electrostimulation of ganglion cells. The system will be used to generate visual sensations based on captured visual images for patients with degenerated retina functions. Special CMOS circuitry will be developed for an integrated photodetector array with preprocessing according to the requirements for biology inspired spatio-temporal signal processing. Also, the development will include a flexible silicon multielectrode structure with microelectronic action potential generation for stimulation of intact retinal ganglion cells and a wireless communication interface linking the external retina encoder hardware and the implanted stimulator hardware.