Patents by Inventor Lance M. Optican

Lance M. Optican has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Apparatus and method for transmitting prosthetic information to the brain
    Patent number: 5037376
    Abstract: An apparatus and method for transmitting prosthetic information to the brain contains an array of sensory elements that receive energy from an external stimulus and process those signals via neural filters and neural waveforms to produce a pulse or `spike` train that is temporally encoded with information that is functionally related to the external stimulus. The simulated spike trains, when applied to an appropriate area of the brain, produce perceptions that are functionally related to the sensed external stimuli so that a subject can discriminate between different spike trains representative of different external stimuli.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 1988
    Date of Patent: August 6, 1991
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Department of Health and Human Services
    Inventors: Barry J. Richmond, Lance M. Optican