Non-invasive ultrasound neuromodulation for vision restoration from retinal diseases

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12564736-B2
Application number	US-202218272774-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 20, 2022
Priority date	Jan 22, 2021
Publication date	Mar 3, 2026
Grant date	Mar 3, 2026

Abstract

Retinal disease is responsible for many instances of vision impairment. Often, individuals with vision impaired due to retinal disease continue to have functioning retinal neurons. Thus, systems, methods, and devices to stimulate retinal neurons may restore sight for vision-impaired individuals. Systems, methods, and devices provided herein direct ultrasound energy into retinal neurons and modulate phase and amplitude of ultrasound energy in time and space domains in order to variously stimulate various retinal neurons, generating neural responses consistent with visual reproduction of intended images.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A portable ultrasonic neuromodulation system for vision restoration from retinal diseases, the system comprising:
a camera configured to capture an image; a processor configured to receive the captured image and to transfer data corresponding to the captured image to an ultrasound system; and the ultrasound system configured to convert the data corresponding to the image to an acoustic beam pattern corresponding to the image, the ultrasound system comprising an ultrasound transducer, wherein the ultrasound transducer is a helical ultrasonic transducer that delivers acoustic energy at a retina of an eye to evoke a neural response corresponding to the image, the acoustic energy generating or producing an acoustic beam pattern formed in a shape of a ‘C’, having a center frequency of between 3-24 MHz, and a negative peak acoustic pressure of between 0.5 MPa to 3 MPa for a duration of between 5 to 300 milliseconds.

2 . The portable ultrasonic neuromodulation system according to claim 1 , further comprising a sensor configured to monitor the neural response and provide data corresponding to the neural response to the processor.

3 . The portable ultrasonic neuromodulation system according to claim 1 , wherein the ultrasound transducer comprises a 2D matrix array of transducer elements.

4 . The portable ultrasonic neuromodulation system according to claim 3 , further comprising a power amplifier configured to drive each element of the 2D matrix array of the transducer elements.

5 . A method for vision restoration from retinal diseases, the method comprising:
capturing, using a camera, an image; receiving, at a processor, the captured image; transferring, by the processor, the captured image to an ultrasound system including a helical ultrasonic transducer; converting, by the ultrasound system, the captured image to an acoustic beam pattern; and transmitting, by the ultrasound system, the acoustic beam pattern to deliver energy to an eye, the acoustic beam pattern formed in a shape of a ‘C’, having a center frequency of between 3-24 MHz, and a negative peak acoustic pressure of between 0.5 MPa to 3 MPa for a duration of between 5 to 300 milliseconds, wherein the energy evokes neuron activity in a retina of the eye.

6 . The method of claim 5 ,
wherein the ultrasound system comprises a 2D matrix array of transducer elements, and wherein transmitting the acoustic beam pattern comprises modulating both amplitude and phase for each individual element of the 2D matrix array of transducer elements to produce the acoustic beam pattern.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the ultrasound system comprises a power amplifier configured to drive each individual element of the 2D matrix array of transducer elements.

8 . A portable ultrasonic neuromodulation system for vision restoration from retinal diseases, the system comprising:
a sensor configured to monitor a neural response of a brain; a processor configured to generate an image and transfer data corresponding to the image to an ultrasound system; and the ultrasound system configured to convert the data corresponding to the image to an acoustic beam pattern corresponding to the image, the ultrasound system comprising a helical ultrasound transducer having a 2D matrix array of transducer elements, wherein the 2D matrix array of transducer elements generate an acoustic beam pattern formed in a shape of a ‘C’ and via modulation of both amplitude and phase information for each transducer element to deliver acoustic energy having a center frequency of between 3-24 MHz at a retina of an eye of a blind patient to evoke a neural response, and wherein the sensor measures the neural response and instructs the processor to alter the acoustic beam pattern to cause the neural response to correspond to the image.

9 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the transmitted acoustic beam pattern has a negative peak acoustic pressure of between 0.1 MPa to 15 MPa.

10 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the transmitted acoustic beam pattern is generated for a duration of between 0.1 to 500 milliseconds and with a duty cycle between 0.1% to 100%.

11 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the acoustic beam pattern has a negative peak acoustic pressure that is between 0.1 MPa to 15 MPa and is generated for a duration of between 0.1 to 500 milliseconds.

12 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the ultrasound system further comprises a power amplifier connected to and driving each transducer element of the 2D matrix array of transducer elements.

Assignees

• Univ Southern California

Inventors

• Humayun Mark S
• Zhou Qifa
• Qian Xuejun
• Thomas Biju
• Lu Gengxi
• Shung Koping Kirk

Classifications

• A61N2007/0056

  Beam shaping elements · CPC title

• A61N2007/0026

  Stimulation of nerve tissue · CPC title

• A61F9/08

  Devices or methods enabling eye-patients to replace direct visual perception by another kind of perception · CPC title

• A61N2007/0095

  by modifying an excitation signal · CPC title

• G06V10/70

  using pattern recognition or machine learning (optical pattern recognition or electronic computations therefor G06V10/88) · CPC title