First ICVP meeting

The Intracortical Vision Prosthesis (ICVP) Project at Illinois Tech had its first meeting of principal investigators at the University of Chicago on June 16 and 17. The purpose of the meeting was for the principal investigators for each sub-team to present on their progress towards each milestone and to coordinate the efforts of the sub-teams. Frank Lane, associate professor of psychology, was in attendance to update the team on his role in the project.

The ICVP system is designed to produce visual percepts to an individual who is totally blind by wireless stimulation the visual cortex. Since many individuals affected by total blindness do not have intact retinas or optic nerves, but retain the visual cortex, the areas of the brain that allow us to see, an intra-cortical visual prosthesis may be the only possible advanced visual sensory aid from which they could benefit. A total of five participants who have blindness will be implanted with the system at the University of Chicago.