Switching Between Different Neuroprosthetic Renderings to Better Perceive the Environment

Visual neuroprostheses are devices that restore limited visual perception for visually impaired patients.Some of these neuroprostheses, implanted in the retina or the visual cortex, include an implant, a computing device and an external camera to capture the scene.Microstimulation of the retina or the visual cortex activates white spots called phosphenes, which restores a limited visual perception.Indeed, the resolution of current implants (i.e., the number and spacing of the electrodes) that have passed clinical trial phases remains low.Such a low resolution, coupled with the limited number of different colours rendered by the implants, limits the information that can be transferred.Hence, the regular rendering process used in the implants, called scoreboard, is insufficient to provide implanted patients with a good understanding of the visual scene and complex sensorimotor processes such as wayfinding.Ongoing research mainly aims at maximising the quality and quantity of the phosphenes provided by the implant.We set up a comparative study between different renderings, and we showed that providing the implanted patient with the possibility to switch between different renderings significantly increases the understanding of the environment.