| Patent application number | Description | Published |
| 20090118805 | Return Electrode for a Flexible Circuit Electrode Array - In a visual prosthesis electrodes stimulate retinal tissue to induce the perception of light to a user implanted with the prosthesis. The prosthesis must have a return, or common, electrode to make a complete circuit with the retinal tissue. To avoid stimulating tissue with the return electrode, it is advantageous if the electrode is large. | 05-07-2009 |
| 20090124965 | IMPLANTABLE DEVICE FOR THE BRAIN - The present invention consists of an implantable device with at least one package that houses electronics that receives input data or signals, and optionally power, from an external system through at least one coil attached to the at least one package, processes the input data and delivers electrical pulses to neural tissue through at least one array of multiple electrodes that is/are attached to the at least one package. The invention, or components thereof, is/are intended to be installed in the head, or on or in the cranium or on the dura, or on or in the brain. | 05-14-2009 |
| 20110166623 | Implantable Retinal Electrode Array Configuration for Minimal Retinal Damage and Method of Reducing Retinal Stress - This invention is a retinal electrode array assembly and methods of using the same that facilitate surgical implant procedures by providing the operating surgeon with visual references and grasping means and with innovations that reduce actual and potential damage to the retina and the surrounding tissue. | 07-07-2011 |
| Patent application number | Description | Published |
| 20080221653 | FLEXIBLE CIRCUIT ELECTRODE ARRAY - A flexible circuit electrode array comprising:
| 09-11-2008 |
| 20080268134 | ELECTRODE WITH INCREASED STABILITY AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURING THE SAME - The present invention provides an implantable electrode with increased stability having a clustered structure wherein the surface of the electrode is covered with a material comprising openings which are filled with sticks or posts. | 10-30-2008 |
| 20080275527 | Retinal Prosthesis with a New Configuration - Polymer materials are useful as electrode array bodies for neural stimulation. They are particularly useful for retinal stimulation to create artificial vision, cochlear stimulation to create artificial hearing, and cortical stimulation, and many related purposes. The pressure applied against the retina, or other neural tissue, by an electrode array is critical. Too little pressure causes increased electrical resistance, along with electric field dispersion. Too much pressure may block blood flow. Common flexible circuit fabrication techniques generally require that a flexible circuit electrode array be made flat. Since neural tissue is almost never flat, a flat array will necessarily apply uneven pressure. Further, the edges of a flexible circuit polymer array may be sharp and cut the delicate neural tissue. By applying the right amount of heat to a completed array, a curve can be induced. With a thermoplastic polymer it may be further advantageous to repeatedly heat the flexible circuit in multiple molds, each with a decreasing radius. Further, it is advantageous to add material along the edges. It is further advantageous to provide a fold or twist in the flexible circuit array. Additional material may be added inside and outside the fold to promote a good seal with tissue. | 11-06-2008 |
| 20080288036 | Flexible Circuit Electrode Array with Wire or Film Support - The disclosure relates to a flexible circuit electrode array comprising: a polymer base layer; metal traces deposited on said polymer base layer, including electrodes suitable to stimulate neural tissue; a polymer top layer deposited on said polymer base layer and said metal traces; and at least one support embedded in said array. The disclosure further relates to a flexible circuit electrode array comprising: a polymer base layer; metal traces deposited on said polymer base layer, including electrodes suitable to stimulate neural tissue; a polymer top layer deposited on said polymer base layer and said metal traces; and a folded flexible circuit cable connecting the electrode array with an interconnection pad. The disclosure further relates to a method of making a flexible circuit electrode array comprising: depositing a polymer base layer; depositing metal on said polymer base layer; patterning said metal to form metal traces; depositing a polymer top layer on said polymer base layer and said metal traces; heating said flexible circuit electrode array in a mold to form a three dimensional shape in said flexible circuit electrode array, embedding a support at least in the base layer, top layer or between the base and top layer, and/or folding a flexible circuit cable at least once connecting the electrode array with an interconnection pad the array. | 11-20-2008 |
| 20080288037 | Flexible Circuit Electrode Array - A flexible circuit electrode array with more than one layer of metal traces comprising: a polymer base layer; more than one layer of metal traces, separated by polymer layers, deposited on said polymer base layer, including electrodes suitable to stimulate neural tissue; and a polymer top layer deposited on said polymer base layer and said metal traces. Polymer materials are useful as electrode array bodies for neural stimulation. They are particularly useful for retinal stimulation to create artificial vision, cochlear stimulation to create artificial hearing, or cortical stimulation many purposes. The pressure applied against the retina, or other neural tissue, by an electrode array is critical. Too little pressure causes increased electrical resistance, along with electric field dispersion. Too much pressure may block blood flow. | 11-20-2008 |
| 20110130806 | Retinal Prosthesis - The invention is a retinal prosthesis with an improved configuration mounting necessary components within and surrounding the eye. The present invention better allows for the implantation of electronics within the delicate eye structure. The invention further limits the necessary width of a thin film conductor passing through the sclera by use of a multiplexer external to the sclera and a demultiplexer internal to the sclera. | 06-02-2011 |
| Patent application number | Description | Published |
| 20080218526 | System and Method for Image-Based Rendering with Object Proxies - A system and method for rendering with an object proxy. In one embodiment, a method includes forming a set of view textures corresponding to a set of viewing directions; selecting a viewing direction for rendering; selecting at least two view textures from the formed set based on the selected viewing direction; and rendering the object proxy at the selected viewing direction. The rendering step includes applying texture from the selected view textures onto the selected object proxy. The view texture set forming step includes: calculating texture coordinates for the object proxy based on the level of obstruction at different portions of the object proxy and texture packing data; and drawing portions of the object based on the level of obstruction data for the object proxy and based on the texture packing data to obtain a view texture at the selected viewing direction. | 09-11-2008 |
| 20090058871 | Example-Based Procedural Synthesis of Element Arrangements - Method and apparatus for synthesizing element arrangements from an example. Embodiments may synthesize element arrangement patterns from an example arrangement. Embodiments may combine a texture synthesis technique based on local neighborhood comparison of an example and a target with procedural modeling based on local growth. Given an example, connectivity of elements may be constructed to get neighborhoods information of each element. A synthesis process may start with a single seed and expand the synthesized pattern by placing new elements at seed locations one by one. A reference element may be selected from the example that has neighborhood features that are most similar to neighborhood features of the target seed in the synthesized pattern. A non-rotation mode, a rotation mode, and a flow field mode may be provided. A painting tool, a flow field tool, and a boundary tool may be provided. | 03-05-2009 |
| 20090184960 | System and Methods for Rendering Transparent Surfaces in High Depth Complexity Scenes Using Hybrid and Coherent Layer Peeling - Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for rendering three-dimensional scenes including transparent surfaces are described, including two techniques for efficient rendering of transparent surfaces that exploit partial ordering in the scene geometry. The first (hybrid layer peeling) may combine unordered meshes with ordered meshes in an efficient way, and may be well suited for rendering scenes such as volumes with embedded transparent meshes. The second (coherent layer peeling) may efficiently detect and render correctly sorted fragment sequences for a given pixel in one iteration, allowing for a smaller number of passes than traditional depth peeling. Pre-sorting and/or periodic sorting of some or all of the surfaces in a scene may be performed, but perfect sorting may not be required. The methods may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination thereof, such as by program instructions executable on one or more CPUs and/or GPUs. | 07-23-2009 |