Media reports on companies invested by the TAYA Group: Iridium’s AI artificial retina helps blind patients see again
2021/10/13
Economic Daily News / Wu Chia-Fen
A high dependence on using 3C products in daily life risks causing retinopathy and even blindness. Iridium Medical Technology uses bionic AI technology to imitate the original retinal function, with research and development of a third category of active charged high-end medical materials in a “high-acuity spherical bionic retina” to help blind patients see again. This is expected to enter human trial phase testing next year.
Assistant Vice President Yang, Yun-Ta of Iridium Medical Technology points out that in a bionic retina chip system, the effective interface of each chip can reach 4,000 pixels or more. Among these, the chip system for each pixel integrates the following: (1) a camera chip; (2) a signal processing circuit and AI convolution calculation; (3) stimulating microelectrodes; (4) wireless power supply; (5) RF signal transmission; and (6) electronic packaging with biocompatibility. The photosensitive image chip is made into a spherical shape similar to a contact lens and has elasticity. The electrode array on the chip can closely fit the neuron surface of the retina in the deepest part of the eyeball, creating extremely high resolution.
The retina is a very thin layer of cells at the back of the eyeball, where the eye converts light into nerve signals. The macular area of the retina is the clearest part of the eye. Among eye diseases involving retinopathy worldwide, there are more than 30 million patients with age-related macular degeneration as well as two million patients suffering from retinitis pigmentosa caused by genetic factors; these patients gradually lose their eyesight until they are completely blind.
The main reason is necrosis of the photoreceptor cells in the retina where they lose the ability to process light for neurons in the brain, just as the film of a camera might be damaged and cannot function. Through the technology of implantable bionic retinas, it is hoped that these patients can regain their vision.
The aforementioned innovative technologies can effect a tremendous breakthrough in the bottleneck that is constraining current technology and improve visual resolution by leaps and bounds. It also has a complete global patent layout, obtaining 37 global patents and an additional four patents that are under review.
The “high-acuity spherical bionic retina” developed by these innovative technologies can achieve a visual resolution of 20/168, allowing patients to read again and restoring the ability to live independently. Iridium predicts that it can create a global advantage in bionic retinas with an estimated output value of tens of billions of Taiwan dollars.
Hsueh, Mei-Jen, Chairperson of Iridium Medical Technology, says that Iridium combined interdisciplinary human talent in the fields of IC design, AI, wireless communication, materials science, biomedicine, and so on. Combining Taiwan’s ICT strengths with medical advantages, it is a very meaningful achievement to implant tiny artificial chips into eyeballs to help patients with eye disease see the world, and to make Taiwan’s high-end medical materials R&D capabilities visible to the world as well.
For the full text, please see the Economic Daily News report::https://money.udn.com/money/story/5635/5814848