Pixium Vision: First Clinical Results and Innovative Developments

Abstract

Visual prostheses or Vision Restoration Systems (VRSs) aim to provide blind patients with useful visual information for face, shape, and object recognition, as well as reading and independent locomotion. VRS are specifically designed for patients having lost their photoreceptors. The loss of photoreceptors can either result from hereditary genetic retinal diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa or more complex diseases such as age-related macular degeneration. Visual restoration is achieved by electrically stimulating the residual retinal circuit. After successful clinical trials by others, Pixium Vision and its partners are developing two VRS solutions for blind patients: an epi-retinal and a sub-retinal approach. This chapter describes the specificities of the epi-retinal IRISTM VRS that has obtained the European CE cerfication mark, and also discuss the associated innovations developed at the Vision Institute for future VRS models.