Transcorneal digital stimulator development based on a PC based signal generator

Abstract

Optical diseases like retinitis pigmentosa and glaucoma (among others) are the main cause of partial or total blindness in humans. These diseases are typically treated by allopathic medicine and visual surgery. Recent studies show that partial recovery of sight can be produced by electrical stimulation. Most of the equipment used in these stimulation therapies only allows the generation of a single type of wave, are not portable and require the obligatory presence of the patient in the hospital. In this paper, a new multiple signal generator provided by a personal computer given the user the freedom to generate the waveform is proposed. Besides, the electro-stimulator transmits the signal wirelessly. The signal selection is done according to the patient therapy, providing an additional advantage: to adapt the stimulation according to the required therapy. Also it has been demonstrated the relationship between the signal produced by software in the generator and the signal sent by the stimulator. The stimulator was tested with a real sample of tissue. The correlation between two signals demonstrates the efficiency of the generator proposed in a wide range of amplitude, frequency and repetition.