Artificial vision system

An artificial vision system for stimulating a visual cortex of a blind person, comprising:

• a body implant including an electrode array having multiple adjacent electrodes applicable against the visual cortex of the blind person, and a micro-stimulator means mounted on a back side of the electrode array, for selectively generating stimulation signals on the electrodes producing phosphenes on the visual cortex representing an artificial image in response to airwave-received implant control signals;
• and
• an external unit including an image sensor adapted to take a real scene image, an image processor and command generator means connected to the image sensor for processing image data signals produced by the image sensor in accordance with predetermined processing operations and generating implant compatible stimulation commands causing the body implant to produce the artificial image on the visual cortex corresponding to the real scene image, and a transceiver circuit connected to the image processor and command generator means, for producing airwave-transmitted implant control signals carrying the stimulation commands, the processing operations including a digitalization of the image data signals to form a digital image, an image reduction of the digital image into a scaled down image having a same resolution as the electrode array, and an image enhancement of the scaled down image to form an enhanced image corresponding to the artificial image produced by the implant unit and from which the stimulation commands are generated.