ELECTRODES PLACEMENT DESIGN FOR CONTROLLING PERCEIVED PHOSPHENE POSITIONS BASED ON ELECTRIC FIELD SIMULATION

A walking support system for blind people is required to be safe to use, not disturb other senses, and be able to recognize obstacles positions intuitively. Therefore, in this research, we have investigated a walking support system that uses a phosphene as visual information. The phosphene is a phenomenon in which the light is recognized by stimulating the visual pathway, and it is considered that the position of the obstacle can be intuitively recognized by presenting it at an arbitrary position in the visual field. To realize a safe walking support system, the presentation accuracy of the phosphene is important, but it has been mentioned in the previous research that the presentation accuracy in the central direction of the visual field needs to be improved. In this paper, electrode placements for stimulating the intended coordinates on the eyeball surface are proposed using simulation. Concretely, the reason why the presentation accuracy in the central direction is low is clarified by simulating the transition of the electric field on the surface of the eyeball during electrical stimulation