Study Status: Recruiting
Recruit Status: Recruiting
Study Type: Observational
Official Title: Visual Information Restoration and Rehabilitation Via Sensory Substitution Technology in Children
Brief Summary:
The BrainPort vision device is a visual prosthetic designed for those who are blind. It enables perception of visual information using the tongue and camera system as a paired substitute for the eye. Visual information is collected from a video camera and translated into a gentle vibration that is presented to the subject on the tongue. With training users perceive shape, size, location and motion of objects in their environment. It is a functional, non-surgical device developed to demonstrate as an aid to the visually impaired.
The aim of this proposal is to evaluate a non-surgical visual prosthetic (BrainPort vision device) that enables the blind to appreciate their immediate surroundings and determine the way the brain interprets the information. Our goal is to determine if the device can be used in a pediatric population by measuring the subjects' improvement over baseline in any of the following areas: light detection, light localization, movement perception, and standardized object recognition tasks after use of the BrainPort.