A graduate-level seminar in the physiology and psychophysics of prosthetic vision. Three hours of lecture per week, six hours of preparation. Prerequisites are a basic understanding of the early visual pathway. Topics include causes of blindness; theory of prosthesis operation; retinal, thalamic, cortical devices; assessment strategies; performance of approved devices; system limitations; ethics. Each student will be expected to select a topic to write a term paper and make a 15-20 minute presentation on the report. Term papers are expected to be of publishable quality as review articles.
This is a new course with two primary goals, first to educate enrolled students in the current state-of-the-art of artificial vision, and second to help prepare students for an academic career on the international stage. All classes and discussions will be in English, along with all writing assignments.
The course will have two lectures per week, held one immediately after the other. The first session will start with journal-club style discussions on assigned papers for which a written review will be required before the start of class.
Each student will be expected to participate in every class, and complete all assignments. Although there is no final exam, there will be a term paper (see below). Grading will be based on participation in all aspects of the class (see below).
The syllabus is as follows, although the details will be refined through the term. Typically (although not always) every other lecture will be primarily a discussion. NOTE: The class is scheduled for one 3-hour meeting per week. The schedule below lists two 1.5-hour lectures per week that will be given one immediately after the other.
| Lecture | Date | Description | ||
| 1.1 | 21 Feb | introduction to course, review of requirements, early visual pathway, term paper projects | ||
| 1.2 | 21 Feb | coordinate systems: retinotopic, egocentric, allocentric; the illusion of high-resolution vision | ||
| 2.1 | 28 Feb | causes of blindness: diseases, surgery, trauma (normal and warfare) | ||
| 2.2 | 28 Mar | review of electrical stimulation targets: retina, optic nerve, LGN, cortex | ||
| 3.1 | 7 Mar | thalamus: MGH group (was Lecture 5.1) | ||
| 3.2 | 7 Mar | thalamus (cont'd; was Lecture 5.2) | ||
| 4.1 | 14 Mar | retinal projects: Stanford, Second Sight, Boston Retina Group, Retina Implant AG, Australian | ||
| 4.2 | 14 Mar | retinal projects (cont'd); term paper selections due | ||
| 5.1 | 21 Mar | retinal projects (cont'd) | ||
| 5.2 | 21 Mar | retinal projects (cont'd) | ||
| 6.1 | 28 Mar | optic nerve: Belgian, Japanese, Chinese groups | ||
| 6.2 | 28 Mar | cortex: MIT group, IIT group; basic outline of term papers due | ||
| 7.1 | 4 Apr | other methods of restoring vision: magnetic stimulation, sensory substitution (survey) | ||
| 7.2 | 4 Apr | Assessments and performance of prosthetic systems: simulations, implants, inherent bias | ||
| ---- | 11 Apr | Easter Break | ||
| ---- | 11 Apr | Easter Break | ||
| ---- | 18 Apr | Easter Break | ||
| ---- | 18 Apr | Easter Break | ||
| 8.1 | 25 Apr | Assessments (cont'd) | ||
| 8.2 | 25 Apr | Performance of approved systems: Argus II, Alpha IMS | ||
| 9.1 | 2 May | Encoding methods | ||
| 9.2 | 2 May | System limitations and patient expectations; first draft of term papers due | ||
| 10.1 | 9 May | Patient selection: physiological criteria, psychological criteria, social support | ||
| 10.2 | 9 May | Ethics | ||
| 11.1 | 16 May | Other indications | ||
| 11.2 | 16 May | Student presentations | ||
| 12.1 | 23 May | Student presentations (cont'd) | ||
| 12.2 | 23 May | Review and conclusions | ||
| 13.1 | 30 May | reserved | ||
| 13.2 | 30 May | reserved | ||
| 14.1 | 6 Jun | reserved | ||
| 14.2 | 6 Jun | reserved; final draft of term papers due |
Lecture slides can be downloaded by following this link.
Reading assignments will be associated with each lecture, and can be found below.
Written assignments will be mini-reviews of assigned papers from the reading. The first paragraph should give an overview of the work: the question(s), methods, and main results. The subsequent paragraphs should review each figure in turn, describing the methods and results (for long papers, we will tell you which figures to concentrate on). The final paragraph should be a brief critique of the paper. You need not follow the format exactly, for instance you can make critiques along with the discussions of each figure, but be rigorous and consistent in format. Stay within 500-750 words (one or two pages).
All homework is due prior to the start of class. The major reasons for assigning the mini-reviews are (1) to ensure that you are prepared for the group discussion, and (2) to assess how deeply and critically you are thinking about the material. Homeworks are therefore due before the discussion begins. Late homeworks will be marked down by 2 points out of the 5 total. Three or more late homeworks will be cause for serious concern. Homework can be delivered in-hand by hardcopy, or by email to the lecturer; when delivering homework by email, please use an obvious subject like, "Homework for 7/3/2017 from Dimitri Papadopoulos".
Reading and writing assignments can be found by following this link. The assignment page will be updated weekly.
We will be using the Google Group Artificial Vision Course Spring 2017 for official announcements. You should also plan on checking this web site regularly.
The lecturer can be reached at pezaris.john@mgh.harvard.edu
The requirements for the term paper, along with a list of suggested topics can be found in the following PDF (note that it may be updated through the term):
artificial-vision-2017-term-papers-170220.pdf
The term papers will be written such that they would be appropriate for submission to an international journal (Scientific Reports, Science Advances, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, PLoS ONE, etc.) with limited additional effort. Collaboration is possible, although with some constraints as described in the PDF linked above.
Each student will be required to lead a homework discussion session during the term, and to make a short presentation at the end of the term on their paper. The final presentation will be reviewed by fellow students through peer assessment forms.
Grades for the course will be based about one third on the weekly written homework, one third on in-class participation during discussions, and one third on the term paper including peer assessments of the final presentation.