HOW NATIONAL

INSTRUMENTS & LabVIEW

HAVE HELPED TO BUILD A

BIONIC EYE

Mohit N Shivdasani

Bionics Institute, Victoria, Australia

mshivdasani@bionicsinstitute.org

BIONICS INSTITUTE

• Bionic Ear Institute Founded in 1983 – Prof Graeme Clark

• Relaunched in 2011 as The Bionics Institute

• Independent Medical Research Institute

• World-Class Medical Bionics Research, Focussed Particularly on Neural

Prostheses

• Bionic Devices Offer Solutions to Debilitating Conditions Where Other Treatments

Have Not Been Successful

• Three Main Research Themes – Bionic Hearing, Bionic Vision and Neurobionics

• Registered Service Provider (RSP) with AusIndustry

• Collaborating With RSP’s Enables Companies to Conduct R&D Activities Without

Having to Invest in Specialist Staff;

Bionic Vision Australia - Multidisciplinary

Collaboration Funded $50m by the ARC (2010-

2014)

Idea For An Australian Bionic Eye Came From

2020 Summit Held in April 2008

CURRENTLY OVER 50,000 AUSTRALIANS

ESTIMATED TO HAVE BLINDNESS

GOAL: RESTORE THEIR VISION

WITH A BIONIC EYE

HOW WILL THE BIONIC EYE WORK ?

USING THE CAPABILITIES OF

NI-PXI HARDWARE • NI PXI-2532 512-

Crosspoint Switch

Matrix

• NI PXI-4072 Isolated

DMMs

• NI PXI-7854R Series

FPGA

• NI MXI-4 Optical

Interface

• NI PXI-6221 M-Series

DAQ

USING THE CAPABILITIES OF NI

HARDWARE & LABVIEW

USING THE CAPABILITIES OF NI

HARDWARE & LABVIEW

• Switch to Any Electrode

or Combinations of

Electrodes on the Array

• Measure Impedances for

Electrodes

• Rapid Fault Detection

CUSTOM VI FOR IMPEDANCE &

FAULT DETECTION

CUSTOM VI FOR WAVEFORM

CAPTURE

PROTOTYPE IMPLANT AT

SCIENCEWORKS MUSEUM –

THINK AHEAD EXHIBITION

APPLE DIDN’T STOP !!

2007

2010

2012

THE NEXT GENERATION –

LabVIEW FPGA

• Full Control

Over

Independent

Stimulation

Channels

• MicroSec

Timing Possible

• Analog &

Digital IOs

CUSTOM VI AND FLEXIBLE

USER INTERFACE