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Top1. Introduction
Vision prosthesis restores vision to the blind patients suffering from incurable retinal degenerative diseases such as Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) and Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) (Banarji, Gurunadh, Patyal, Ahluwalia, Vats and Bhadauria, 2009; Kelly et al., 2009;Weiland, Liu, and Humayun, 2005; Tran, Yang, Bai, Ng, Halpern, Grayden, Skafidas, and Mareels, 2009; Tran, Skafidas, Yang, Bai, Fu, Ng, Halpern, and Mareels, 2011; Ganesan, Stacey, Meffin, Lichter, Greferath, Fletcher, and Prawer, 2010; Chen, Lo,Yang, Weiland, Humayun, and Liu, 2013; Wang, Wang, Tang, and Liu, 2012; Matteucci, Paul, Byrnes-Preston, Chen, Lovell, and Suaning, 2011; Fink, Wolfgang, You, and Tarbell, 2010; Noorsal, Sooksood, Xu, Hornig, Becker, and Ortmanns, 2012; Zhou, David, Dorn, and Greenberg, 2013; Microcontrollers Datasheet, n.d.; Liu and Humayun, 2004; Greenwald, Horsager, Humayun, Greenberg, McMahon, and Fine, 2009; Omni Vision, n.d.; Zou, Yuexian, Shi, Jin, and YaliZheng, 2009). AMD and RP cause dysfunction of the photoreceptors, resulting in blindness, but their retinal ganglion communication) cells were still intact. Several distinct vision prosthesis approaches (i.e. Cortex, Optic nerve and Retinal) have been developed over the years. Retinal prostheses can be divided into two categories: epi-retinal and sub-retinal, depending on where in the retina the device is implanted and they aimed to stimulate the inner retina by bypassing damaged photoreceptors. Of these approaches, majority of the researchers are concentrating on epiretinal prosthesis in surgical and technical point of view. Epiretinal approach is advantageous over subretinal approach in aspect of surgery and sufficient space to place electronic components, separation of the electronics, software control and possibility of upgrades without surgery.