Bionic eye lens

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10123869-B2
Application number	US-201313737559-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 9, 2013
Priority date	Jul 12, 2010
Publication date	Nov 13, 2018
Grant date	Nov 13, 2018

Abstract

The present invention relates generally to the restoration or improvement of the quality of human vision and, more particularly to a self-adapting system and method for achieving automatic sharp vision by the human eye of objects for instance at distances between 25 cm and more than 10 meters away. The invention can be situated in at least four technological domains: 1. ophthalmology, in particular the implantation of intraocular lenses. 2. Non-contact biometric signal recording and processing. 3. Electro-optic control of refractive lens power. 4. Wireless energy transfer.

First claim

We claim:

1. An electro-optical implant assembly, the implant assembly comprising 1) an electronic detector system or device which has a motion detector element and 2) an electro- optic artificial lens assembly and further comprising 3) a marker element having a marker or markers adapted to induce electric impedance or voltage variation on the motion detector element in relation to the positional modification or in relation to the spatiotemporal features of said marker element versus detector system to convert the electric impedance or voltage variation into a change of dioptric strength of the electro-optic artificial lens assembly, wherein the motion detector element is electronically connected with the marker element to generate a steering signal for refractive power control of the lens assembly which is representative for an optic nerve signal from the visual cortex generated from neuronal processed spatiotemporal features and to change the dioptric strength in order to get a sharp image, the marker element is electromagnetically detectable and is adapted to be monitored by induced electric inductance changes, and the marker element is one of the following elements: a paramagnetic element or a ferromagnetic element or an electrically conductive element.

2. The electro-optical implant assembly of claim 1 , wherein the motion detector element comprises at least one inductive detector element.

3. The electro-optical implant assembly of claim 2 , wherein the inductive detector element is or comprises any one of the following elements: an inductive coil or a wired inductive material or a deposited metal structure or a printed circuit board.

4. The electro-optical implant assembly of claim 2 , wherein the inductive detector element is or comprises an inductive coil which is electronically monitored by an electronic circuit.

5. The electro-optical implant assembly of claim 4 , wherein the electronic circuit is an oscillation amplitude detection circuit or an oscillation frequency detection circuit.

6. The electro-optical implant assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the implant comprises a signal conversion mechanism adapted to convert the electric impedance variation into a change of dioptric strength of the electro-optic artificial lens assembly.

7. The electro-optical implant assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the electro-optic artificial lens assembly comprises a refractive liquid- crystal display assembly with changeable refractive index and thus dioptric power if voltage is applied on the electrodes.

8. The electro-optical implant assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the detector system is electrically or electronically connected with the electro-optic artificial lens assembly so that an electronic signal or a time-varying voltage or current that conveys information of said spatiotemporal variation of marker versus detector system is translated to a change of dioptric strength of said electro- optic artificial lens assembly.

9. The electro-optical implant assembly according to claim 1 , wherein movement of the marker element modifies an electromagnetic field or oscillations in the electromagnetic field.

10. The electro-optical implant assembly according to claim 1 , comprising an electro-optic self-adaptive artificial lens.

11. The electro-optical implant assembly according to claim 1 , wherein said motion detector and the intra-optic lens act as a closed feedback loop allowing the person to focus on images at distances between 25 cm and infinity.

12. The electro-optical implant assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the motion detector is electronically connected with the marker element to generate a time-varying voltage or current in the lens assembly to control the refractive power of the lens wherein the time-varying voltage or current conveys information of the visual cortex or its optical nerve.

13. The electro-optical implant assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the detection of the electronic detection system or detection device is based on the monotonic relation between the marker position, and the electric impedance of an inductive element comprised in a detector system.

14. The electro-optical implant assembly according to claim 1 for use in a surgical treatment of a patient to restore or improve vision sharpness wherein the marker or markers are surgically placed in said patient so that the marker or markers are comprised in or are on the ciliary muscle, or near to the ciliary muscle, in the zonular fiber connection zone between the ciliary muscle and the lens body.

15. The electro-optical implant assembly according to claim 1 for use in a surgical treatment of a patient to restore or improve vision sharpness wherein after surgery the electronic detection system, in total or in part or its core, is located in the peripheral zone of the artificial intraoptic lens, out of the transparent zone which transmits the light from the outside world to the retina and wherein the marker or markers are subcutaneously or attached to the skin placed in the region between both eyes so that at turning-in of the eye balls towards the central axis in the vision direction the degree of turning-is translated in the degree of impedance variation on the motion detector element.

16. The electro-optical implant assembly according to claim 1 for use in a surgical treatment of a patient to restore or improve vision wherein after surgery the marker or markers and/or detection systems are placed between both eyes or close to the eye(s) so that turning-in of the eyes then also is reflected in the relative positions between markers and detection systems and that the derived impedance signals in the electro-optic circuitry controls the dioptric strength of the lens.

17. The electro-optical implant assembly according to claim 1 comprising a lens assembly wherein the lens assembly is a dual lens assembly with intra-optic lenses electronically controllable liquid crystal sandwiched between and aligned with transparent, electrode coated curved surfaces forming a concave lens shape where the refractive power of intra-optic lens is made polarisation independent by optically processing two orthogonal polarization components of the light in series, thus proportionally refracting all polarization components of the incident light.

18. The electro-optical implant assembly of claim 1 , wherein the motion detector element is electronically connected with the marker element in a wireless manner.

19. The electro-optical implant assembly of claim 1 , wherein the motion detector element comprises at least one inductive detector element being an inductive coil and an electronic circuit for electronically monitoring the inductive coil for sensing motion of the marker.

20. The electro-optical implant assembly of claim 19 , wherein the motion detector element is a Colpitts oscillator.

Assignees

• Blanckaert Johan
• Glorieux Christ
• Puers Robert
• Univ Leuven Kath

Inventors

• Blanckaert Johan
• Glorieux Christ
• Puers Robert

Classifications

• A61F2/1627 Primary

  for changing index of refraction, e.g. by external means or by tilting · CPC title

• A61F2250/0002

  for data transfer · CPC title

• A61B5/1107

  Measuring contraction of parts of the body, e.g. organ or muscle · CPC title

• A61B5/6821

  Eye · CPC title

• A61F2250/0096

  Markers and sensors for detecting a position or changes of a position of an implant, e.g. RF sensors, ultrasound markers · CPC title