Bioengineering an der Monash University in Australien

Research that could contribute to the development of a bionic eye has taken out the Best Student Paper Prize at the BioDevices 2012 International Conference.

Monash University PhD student, Horace Josh’s winning paper Mobile, Real-Time Simulator for a Cortical Visual Prosthesis described research undertaken during 2011 with former Monash Vision Group (MVG) staff member Benedict Yong under the supervision of Associate Professor Lindsay Kleeman.

The real-time system demonstrates the level of vision that would be achievable via a bionic eye implant through the use of a camera, virtual reality goggles and processing hardware.

“I was extremely pleased to win the award especially as the conference acceptance of papers was quite difficult with only a nine per cent acceptance rate for full papers,” Mr Josh said.

“It is a very important achievement not only for my PhD, but also for my future career in research.”

The conference, part of the 5th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies (BIOSTEC) was held in Portugal earlier this month.

Mr Josh is currently completing his PhD in the MVG laboratory in the Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering.

MVG is a collaboration between Monash University, Grey Innovation, Alfred Health and MiniFAB, funded through the ARC Special Initiative in Bionic Vision Science and Technology.

Research could restore sight to 85 per cent of people who are clinically blind by transmitting wireless signals directly to an implant in the brain.

For more information on research into the bionic eye visit the MVG website.