Benefit of spatial filtering for visual perception with a subretinal implant

Subretinal implants have proven to be capable of restoring vision to patients suffering from hereditary retinal degeneration diseases like retinitis pigmentosa and cone-rod dystrophy. Although they already provide basic visual perception, there is still much room for improvement in this field. Effects like electric field interference limit the visual acuity and may be the cause of the perceived vision to be blurred. This influence could be reduced by means of highpass spatial filtering. In this paper, based on the available reports about the visual perception parameters from the patients using the alpha-IMS subretinal implant, a model for the blurring effect of the patients retina is proposed. On this basis, highpass filters are suggested which will compensate the obscuring effect of the stimulator device plus retina system to some extent.