CYCLOPS: A Rover for the Blind with Artificial Retina Implant

The mobile robotic platform or rover, a.k.a. Cyclops, is the first such device to emulate what the blind can see with an implant, says Wolfgang Fink, a visiting professor in physics at Caltech. Cyclops is equipped with a gimballed camera, four-rubberized grooved wheels and a computing platform which contains the algorithms to process the captured images. Though for now it is operated locally by a joystick, it is hoped that this approach may one day give blind persons the freedom of independent mobility.