CCNY PRISM Lecture Series on          
Computer Vision, Robotics and Human-Computer Interaction 

TITLE:  Bionic Vision Australia: Patient Study and Technical Aspects of Vision Processing

Location: Steinman Hall, Exhibit Room, The City College of New York

Time:  12:30 pm - 1:45 pm

Date: October 1st, 2014

Abstract:
This talk will be presented in two parts:

Part 1: In 2012, Bionic Vision Australia (BVA) implanted three Melbourne patients with the first suprachoroidal retinal prosthesis, or "bionic eye". A bionic eye is an electronic device which aims to restore functional vision to patients who have become blind from diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa. Although two alternate designs have received commercial approval in the USA and Germany, the main advantage with the BVA device is the novel surgical procedure and anatomical location, which delivers superior safety profiles whilst maintaining efficacy. All three BVA patients were able to perceive phosphenes (or spots of light) when their devices were turned on, and no unexpected device-related serious adverse events. These phosphenes were able to provide usable visual information during activities of daily living, and orientation & mobility tasks. In this talk we will present an overview of patient results with this novel technology.
Part 2:  Visual prostheses are severely limited in their capacity to convey visual information about the scene to implantees.   This has motivated consideration of how vision processing algorithms can be designed and used to maximise the bandwidth available, in order to improve functional outcomes for patients.  In this part of the talk we will present an overview of our recent and ongoing work towards the development of computer vision algorithms and novel visual representations to enhance the perception of scene structure in prosthetic vision. These algorithms have been tested with normally-sighted participants using simulated prosthetic vision, and in some cases, recently been applied with BVA's implanted patients. 

Bios:
Dr Matt Petoe is a biomedical engineer with a keen interest in human perception, neuroscience and clinical research. Dr Petoe coordinates human visual psychophysics research at the Bionics Institute of Australia and was responsible for integrating a video-camera and customizing the stimulation strategy used with the Bionic Vision Australia bionic eye patients.

Dr Chris McCarthy is a Senior Researcher with National ICT. Australia (NICTA). With a background in biologically-inspired vision algorithms for robot navigation, Dr McCarthy has spent the last 5 years developing and evaluating computer vision algorithms and image augmentation schemes to support functional outcomes with a visual prosthesis.  In February 2013, Dr McCarthy relocated to Melbourne to work more closely with Bionic Vision Australia's implanted patients.

The PRISM lecture series is supported by two NSF grants (CNS-0424539 and CNS-0551598) and the funding from the Grove School of Engineering (GSoE). This talk is also supported by an NSF GARDE Grant for Assistive Technology Senior Design Course Development.