Michael P. Barry

Dr. Barry is the Associate Director for Translational Research and a Senior Research Associate in the Pritzker Institute of Biomedical Science and Engineering. He has designed and conducted research on visual neuroprostheses since 2007. He also manages the RES-MATCH program (www.iit.edu/pritzker-institute/res-match) for IIT undergraduates.

At Johns Hopkins University, he spent nine years conducting the clinical-trial and post-approval studies for the Argus II visual prosthesis. During that time, he demonstrated the dynamic nature of hand-camera coordination with such prostheses, and the importance of integrated eye tracking for creating stable visual percepts. Afterward, Dr. Barry worked for two years at Second Sight Medical Products, Inc. as a Research Scientist, developing both new retinal and cortical visual prostheses.

Dr. Barry now focuses on designing and conducting all aspects of psychophysical research for the Intracortical Visual Prosthesis project. He develops all software necessary to control the device and collect implantee responses, as well as carrying out research necessary to maximize the safety and utility of the prosthesis. He earned the Envision-Atwell Award for his research in 2017, and has published over 40 academic articles, book chapters, and abstracts related to neuroprostheses and vision.

Education

• Ph.D. Johns Hopkins University, Biomedical Engineering - March 2018
  • Dissertation: Shifting gazes with visual prostheses: Long-term hand-camera coordination
• B.A./M.S. Johns Hopkins University, Neuroscience - May 2010

Research Interests

• Neuroprosthetic design and psychophysical evaluation: Connections to and from the brain and the periphery can be disturbed by injury or disease. This can deprive the brain of expected sensory input or prevent the brain from eliciting action from muscles. By directly stimulating neurons or muscles, based on information from the brain or the environment, neuroprostheses can restore some of this lost function.
  • Artificial vision: Devices Dr. Barry has helped develop include IIT’s Intracortical Visual Prosthesis and Second Sight Medical Products’ Argus® II and Orion visual prostheses. These implanted medical devices can generate visual percepts that can be linked to a camera worn by the implantee. Careful filtering of camera images and selection of stimulation parameters can help implantees to perform visual tasks that are otherwise not possible.
  • Low-vision rehabilitation

Professional Affiliations & Memberships

• Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology – Member – 2010 to 2020, 2023 to 2024
• Society for Neuroscience – Member – 2019, 2023

Awards

• Envision-Atwell Award for Low Vision Research – May 2017

Publications

Peer-reviewed Articles

• Caspi A, Barry MP, Patel UK, Armenta Salas M, Dorn JD, Roy A, Niketeghad S, Greenberg RJ, Pouratian N. Eye movements and the perceived location of phosphenes generated by intracranial primary visual cortex stimulation in the blind. Brain Stimul. 2021 Jul-Aug;14(4):851-860. doi: 10.1016/j.brs.2021.04.019.
• Sadeghi R, Kartha A, Barry MP, Bradley C, Gibson P, Caspi A, Roy A, Dagnelie G. Glow in the dark: Using a heat-sensitive camera for blind individuals with prosthetic vision. Vision Res. 2021 Mar 26;184:23-29. doi: 10.1016/j.visres.2021.02.009.
• Kartha A, Sadeghi R, Barry MP, Bradley C, Gibson P, Caspi A, Roy A, Dagnelie G. Prosthetic visual performance using a disparity-based distance-filtering system. Transl Vis Sci Technol. 2020 Nov; 9(12): 27. doi: 10.1167/tvst.9.12.27.
• Caspi A, Roy A, Barry MP, Sadeghi R, Kartha A, Dagnelie G. The use of handheld marker to calibrate a field-programmable gate array based eye tracker for artificial vision system. 2020 42nd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society (EMBC), Montreal, QC, Canada, 2020, pp. 3323-3326. doi: 10.1109/EMBC44109.2020.9175803.
• Caspi A, Roy A, Wuyyuru V, Rosendall PE, Harper JW, Katyal KD, Barry MP, Dagnelie G, Greenberg RJ. Eye Movement Control in the Argus II Retinal-Prosthesis Enables Reduced Head Movement and Better Localization Precision. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2018 Feb 1;59(2):792-802. doi: 10.1167/iovs.17-22377.
• Caspi A, Rosendall PE, Harper JW, Barry MP, Katyal KD, Dagnelie G, Roy A. Combined eye-head vs. head-only scanning in a blind patient implanted with the Argus II retinal prosthesis. 2017 8th International IEEE/EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering (NER), Shanghai, China, 2017, pp. 29-32. doi: 10.1109/NER.2017.8008284.
• Barry MP, Dagnelie G. Hand-Camera Coordination Varies over Time in Users of the Argus® II Retinal Prosthesis System. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience. 2016;10:41. doi: 10.3389/fnsys.2016.00041.
• Barry MP, Bittner AK, Yang L, Marcus R, Iftikhar MH, Dagnelie G. Variability and errors of manually digitized Goldmann visual fields. Optom Vis Sci. 2016 Jul;93(7):720-30. doi: 10.1097/OPX.0000000000000869.
• Stronks HC, Barry MP, Dagnelie G. Electrically evoked electroretinograms and pupil responses in Argus II retinal implant wearers. Doc Ophthalmol. 2016 Feb;132(1):1-15. doi: 10.1007/s10633-015-9522-x.
• Jeter P, Wang J, Gu J, Barry MP, Roach C, Corson M, Yang L, Dagnelie G. Intra-session test-retest reliability of magnitude and structure of center of pressure from the Nintendo Wii Balance Board™ for a visually impaired and normally sighted population. Gait Posture. 2015 Feb;41(2):482-7. doi: 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2014.11.012.
• Stronks HC, Barry MP, Dagnelie G. Electrically elicited visual evoked potentials in Argus II retinal implant wearers. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2013 Jun 6;54(6):3891-901. doi: 10.1167/iovs.13-11594.
• Barry MP, Dagnelie G; Argus II Study Group. Use of the Argus II retinal prosthesis to improve visual guidance of fine hand movements. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2012 Aug 1;53(9):5095-101. doi: 10.1167/iovs.12-9536.

Book Chapters

• Dagnelie G, Stronks HC, Barry MP. Vision Enhancement Systems. In Principles of Tissue Engineering, 5th Edition. Academic Press. 2020. p. 1163-11183. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-818422-6.00065-4.
• Dagnelie G, Stronks HC, Barry MP. Vision Enhancement Systems. In Principles of Tissue Engineering, 4th Edition. Academic Press. 2014. p. 1441-1470. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-398358-9.00069-0.
• Barry MP, Dagnelie G. Simulations of prosthetic vision. In Visual Prosthetics: Physiology, Bioengineering, Rehabilitation. Springer US. 2011. p. 319-341. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4419-0754-7_16.

Patents

Greenberg RJ, Barry MP, Dagnelie G. Spatial fitting by percept location tracking. US Patent 10052482. August 21, 2018.