Gennaris Bionic Eye
Humanising complex technology with a normalised aesthetic designed with recipients to feel confident and proud to wear the device.
Monash Vision Group’s (MVG) Gennaris bionic vision system aims to provide artificial vision to blind individuals.
MVG is a collaborative partnership between Monash University and Alfred Health and since 2010 has been working to develop a clinically viable bionic vision system, and to demonstrate the safety and usefulness of this system in a small number of recipients with complete bilateral blindness.
The core technology under development by MVG involves a wireless implant that is designed to deliver patterned electrical stimulation to the brain. Up to 11 of these implants, each of which are around the size of a thumbnail, may be placed on the surface of the brain and programmed wirelessly to stimulate brain cells with tiny electrical pulses. When implanted on the visual cortex, these electrical pulses can be interpreted as visual information, providing the recipient with basic shapes and outlines that may assist with navigation, object recognition, and other basic everyday tasks.
Design Health Collab were involved in the design of the external headgear for the Gennaris device. Gennaris comprises a miniature camera worn by the user on custom designed headgear. High-resolution images from the camera are fed to a vision processor unit, which applies a number of signal processing techniques to extract the most useful features from the camera images. This new signal is fed via a wireless transmitter to the implant. Our goal was to humanise this complex technology with a normalised aesthetic, designed with recipients, to help them feel confident and proud to wear the device outside of the lab, in their everyday lives.
MVG is led by Professor Arthur Lowery with the involvement of a number of exceptional academics, including Professor Jeffrey Rosenfeld, Associate Professor Yan Wong and Professor Marcello Rosa.
To read more about MVG’s Gennaris bionic eye, go to: https://www.monash.edu/bioniceye/home
To read more about the people involved in the Gennaris bionic eye, go to: https://www.monash.edu/bioniceye/about-us
