# Early Feasibility Clinical Trial of a Visual Cortical Prosthesis

> **NIH NIH UH3** · SECOND SIGHT MEDICAL PRODUCTS, INC. · 2021 · $1,400,752

## Abstract

Project Summary
Blindness in the United States is a large and increasing problem. Any significant vision loss is
debilitating, but profound blindness is devastating to an individual’s ability to be independent
and to perform everyday tasks and activities. Hundreds of thousands of people in the United
States suffer from profound blindness, and most of these currently have no hope of vision
recovery.
Recently, a retinal prosthesis has become available in Europe, U.S., and Canada for people
with profound vision loss from Retinitis Pigmentosa, a degenerative retinal disease. This
prosthesis, the Argus® II Retinal Prosthesis System, has been approved by the FDA for
commercial use in these patients. However, the Argus II System can only help a small subset of
people who are profoundly blind.
The goal of this project is to conduct a small scale clinical study with the intent of developing the
final version of a visual prosthesis to be placed in the visual cortex – the part of the brain that
processes vision. It will be based on the successful platform of the Argus II System, but
modified for implant in the brain. A cortical prosthesis could help restore visual perception to
many more profoundly blind people, including people who have lost their vision due to disease
or damage to the eyes, optic nerve, or thalamus.
This visual cortical prosthesis, called the Orion, will consist of an array of 60 electrodes that is
implanted on the surface of the brain, a receiving antenna, and an electronics case. The implant
will communicate wirelessly with the external equipment via a transmitting antenna. Other
external components include glasses embedded with a small video camera and a video
processing unit that the implanted patient wears on a belt or strap.
This project will be to conduct a small early feasibility clinical trial of the device in ten people, to
evaluate safety, efficacy, reliability and to conduct psychophysics characterization studies. At
the end of this grant period, the cortical prosthesis will be completely developed and positioned
for testing in a larger group of human subjects.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10128507
- **Project number:** 5UH3NS103442-03
- **Recipient organization:** SECOND SIGHT MEDICAL PRODUCTS, INC.
- **Principal Investigator:** Jessy D Dorn
- **Activity code:** UH3 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $1,400,752
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-15 → 2024-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10128507

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10128507, Early Feasibility Clinical Trial of a Visual Cortical Prosthesis (5UH3NS103442-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10128507. Licensed CC0.

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