[visionlist] Newly published book on Visual Prosthetics

[Gislin Dagnelie]

On-line today, in hard copy next week:
Visual Prosthetics -- Physiology, Bioengineering, Rehabilitation

Dear colleagues,

As many of you may know, this week saw the official announcement that the 
first retinal implant to restore a limited amount of vision to patients blind from 
photoreceptor degenerations -- the Argus II developed by Second Sight 
Medical Products -- has received CE Mark approval, meaning that it can now 
be implanted clinically (and commercially) in Europe.  This is the first such 
device to receive regulatory approval, but undoubtedly not the last.  If the 
cochlear implant's 3-decade history is any indication, there is still a long way 
ahead, but the first steps towards further progress and patient benefit have 
now officially been taken.

By happy coincidence, this is also the week in which a new textbook 
providing a broad overview of the multidisciplinary field called Visual 
Prosthetics has become available on-line, to be followed within a week by 
hard copies.  The book covers all retinal implant research projects as well as 
those for optic nerve, LGN, and cortical visual prostheses.  It starts out with 
anatomy and physiology, and ends with simulations and rehabilitation of 
prosthetic vision.

You can inspect the book at

www.springer.com/engineering/biomedical+eng/book/978-1-4419-0753-0

and download chapters or the entire e-Book (depending on your library's 
contract with Springer).  And you can order the hard cover version, of course.

I am grateful to dozens of colleagues, experts in the fields of visual system 
anatomy and physiology, biomedical engineering, materials science, retinal 
surgery, psychophysics, and low vision rehabilitation, who contributed the 21 
chapters of the book, and put together an overview that did not exist in this 
form.  Although the book is published in the Springer Biomedical Engineering 
collection, it should appeal to a much broader audience.

I hope that many with an interest in this emerging field will take a look at the 
on-line samples.  And of course I'll be happy to receive comments for 
improvements to future editions!

Best regards,

Gislin Dagnelie
Wilmer Eye Institute
Johns Hopkins Univ
gislin at jhu.edu

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