Neurophysiological approach to the design of visual prostheses: a theoretical discussion

This paper deals with the design of systems of sensory substitution of vision in case of blindness. Using the rules of man-machine interactions, one proposes the following optimal design for sensory substitution systems. A model of the visual system might process visual information similarly to its natural counterpart in order to deliver a signal comparable to the one reached in polysensory nervous structures. Then this artificial signal might reach these associative structures through a substitutive sensory system. To achieve this aim, one might model this substitutive system, reverse the information flow, and then trust the natural substitutive system with the stimuli generated by this inverse model. As a result, this artificial system consists of a model of vision connected to an inverse model of the substitutive sensory system. It would first process visual information up to a complex level. Then it would translate this complex signal into coded substitutive stimuli. These stimuli, after processing by the sensory substitutive system, would evoke a vision-like perception.