Artificial vision: advances, topical issues, and prospects

The review presents modern technologies of vision restoration, with special emphasis to retinal prosthetics: Argus, Alpha IMS, Intelligent Medical Implant, Artificial Silicon Retina, Photovoltaic Retinal Prosthesis, Epi-Ret, Boston Retina Implant Project, Bionic Vision Australia, and Semichronic Suprachoroidal Transretinal Prosthesis. Types of visual implants are described, reviewing technical parameters, surgery procedures, clinical trials and application experience. Basic issues and prospects of new artificial vision technologies are discussed.