DocumentCode :
3198918
Title :
Effect of saccades in tongue electrotactile stimulation for vision substitution applications
Author :
Chekhchoukh, A. ; Vuillerme, N. ; Payan, Y. ; Glade, N.
Author_Institution :
AGIM Lab., Univ. Joseph Fourier, La Tronche, France
fYear :
2013
fDate :
3-7 July 2013
Firstpage :
3543
Lastpage :
3546
Abstract :
The visual substitution paradigm aims to facilitate the life of blind people. Generally one uses electro-stimulating devices where electrodes are arranged into arrays to stimulate the skin or the tongue mucosa to send signals of visual type to the subjects. When an electro-stimulation signal is applied continuously (e.g. when static visual scenes are displayed for a long period of time), the receptors of the affected region can get saturated and the patient may lose the displayed information. We propose here some mechanisms that ameliorate the quality of perception of the electro-stimulation information. The electrical signal is encoded as 2D scenes projected onto the tongue via a Tongue Display Unit, i.e. an electro-tactile stimulator formed by a 12×12 matrix of electrodes. We propose to apply stochastic saccades on this signal. Our assumption is that this eye-inspired mechanism should make the visual substitution more efficient (by improving the perception) because of the reduction of the tactile receptors saturation. The influence of saccades was evaluated by a series of experiments. Results revealed a benefit on the persistence of perception due to saccades. This work helps to prevent the saturation of receptors on the tongue. Therefore increasing the quality of vision by the way of the electro-stimulation. It allows new enhancement features to retinal prosthesis devices which suffer from the same phenomenon.
Keywords :
bioelectric potentials; biomechanics; biomedical electrodes; diseases; eye; prosthetics; sensory aids; somatosensory phenomena; visual perception; 2D scene projection; affected region receptor saturation; blind people life facilitation; electrical signal encoding; electrode arrangement; electrode array; electrode matrix; electrostimulating device; electrostimulation information; electrostimulation signal; electrotactile stimulator; eye-inspired mechanism; perception improvement; perception persistence; perception quality; retinal prosthesis device enhancement feature; saccade effect evaluation; skin stimulation; static visual scene display; stochastic saccade application; tactile receptor saturation reduction; tongue display unit; tongue electrotactile stimulation; tongue mucosa stimulation; tongue receptor saturation prevention; vision quality; vision substitution application; visual substitution efficiency; visual substitution paradigm; visual type signal; Electrodes; Fading; Matrices; Prosthetics; Retina; Tongue; Visualization;
fLanguage :
English
Publisher :
ieee
Conference_Titel :
Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2013 35th Annual International Conference of the IEEE
Conference_Location :
Osaka
ISSN :
1557-170X
Type :
conf
DOI :
10.1109/EMBC.2013.6610307
Filename :
6610307
Link To Document :
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