In this Web Exclusive video, Dr. Mark Humayun discusses the workings of the Artificial Retina and explains the surgical procedure used to implant the device in the eye. The first generation of the implant only has 16 pixels, and if a person with normal vision suddenly reduced their sight to this small amount of visual information, he or she would have an incredibly difficult time. However, Dr. Humayun explains that subjects who have the implant learn strategies that help them use these 16 pixels to gather a wealth of information about their environment.
Mark Humayun, M.D., Ph.D. is Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Cell and Neurobiology at the University of Southern California. Dr. Humayun completed his medical degree at Duke University Medical School. While in his residency training at Duke Eye Center, Dr. Humayun earned his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.