Image Processing System Based On DSP For Visual Prostheses

In the world population, there are over 180 million people suffering from visual impairment, 45 million of which are blind. And according to the statistics from China Disabled Persons'Federation, there are 8.77 million persons with visual disabilities in 2006. It is always important scientific problem that how to establish the interface between machine and brain. It is also the challenge to restore visual function by artificial organs; its feasibility has already been confirmed by some Euramerican scientists.This paper is the subproject of the"973"project《Basic Research on the Key Issues of Visual Function Recovery For Blindness》.Firstly, we provide the solution of image processing system based on DM642 for visual prostheses. The system uses CMOS sensor whose trait are low power,small size and low Pixels as image-grabbing equipment, so that it is feasible to plant sensor inside, as well as it meets the demand of the first generation visual prostheses. Secondly, this paper introduce the experiment of pixelized Chinese characters recognition using simulated prosthetic vision, We hope these results will be helpful for the researchers of visual prosthesis in rehabilitation of reading ability for Chinese blind implanted with limited numbers of stimulating electrodes. Thirdly, we focus on the discussion about image processing strategies for visual prostheses, and establish the right flow artificial visual image processing. Finally, the algorithms for visual prostheses are implemented on DM642, and real-time image processing is discussed. It was found that the system can meet the demand of the first generation visual prostheses.