Episode 77 · July 16, 2026 · 39m listen · 2,766 words · ~14 min read

Could a Hacker Change What a Patient Sees? with Frederik Ceyssens | Ep 77 - Full Transcript | The Med Device Cyber Podcast

Read the complete, searchable transcript of Episode 77 of The Med Device Cyber Podcast - expert conversations on medical device cybersecurity, FDA premarket and postmarket guidance, SBOM management, threat modeling, and penetration testing.

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Episode summary

In this episode of the Med Device Cyber podcast, host Christian Espinosa interviews Frederik Ceyssens, Co-Founder and CEO of ReVision Implant, a company developing groundbreaking technology to restore vision to the blind. Frederik shares his background as a researcher in neural implants at the University of Leuven in Belgium, where his work with a neurosurgeon on recording signals from brain cavities led to the development of ultra-flexible microelectrode arrays. This foundational research pivoted towards a new application: creating a visual prosthesis. He explains that while cochlear implants have been highly successful for hearing loss, a similarly effective solution for blindness has remained elusive. His company's approach is to bypass the eye and optic nerve entirely, targeting the brain's visual cortex directly, making the technology a potential solution for blindness from a wide range of causes. The device consists of two main parts: an external unit, which looks like a pair of glasses equipped with a camera, and an internal implant placed on the visual cortex of the brain. The camera captures the surrounding environment, and this visual information is processed and wirelessly transmitted to the implant. The implant then delivers electrical stimulation to the brain, which the user perceives as flashes of light, or phosphenes. Through training and rehabilitation, the user learns to interpret these patterns of light to form a crude but functional image of their surroundings. The ultimate goal is to provide useful vision, allowing individuals to navigate their environment, recognize large shapes and letters, and potentially even identify faces. Frederik details the company's journey, from early research and development to successful, long-term studies on monkeys and securing €4 million in funding to move towards human trials. The conversation also delves into the significant cybersecurity challenges inherent in such advanced implantable devices. With an intended lifespan of 15 to 25 years, the encryption and security protocols implemented today are almost certain to become obsolete and vulnerable over time. The host and guest discuss potential attack vectors, such as a malicious actor hacking the wireless communication to alter the visual data a person sees or, more dangerously, increasing the electrical stimulation to harmful levels. To mitigate some of these long-term risks, Frederik explains that most of the complex processing and software is housed in the external glasses unit, which can be easily updated or replaced. The internal implant is designed to be a more basic, durable component, reducing the need for risky replacement surgeries to upgrade the system's core technology. This highlights the critical balance between innovation, practicality, and long-term security in the field of MedTech.

Key takeaways from this episode

Frederik Ceyssens's company, ReVision Implant, is developing a visual prosthesis that uses a brain implant to directly stimulate the visual cortex, bypassing the eye and optic nerve to restore sight.
The system consists of camera-equipped glasses that capture visual data and wirelessly transmit it to an implanted electrode array on the brain, creating artificial vision.
While the technology does not restore natural sight, it aims to provide 'useful vision,' enabling users to perceive shapes, navigate environments, and potentially read large text.
Implantable medical devices with lifespans of 15-25 years face a major cybersecurity challenge: the encryption used at the time of implantation will likely become obsolete and breakable in the future.
Potential cyberattacks on such devices could include altering the sensory information sent to the brain or manipulating the electrical stimulation to cause physical harm.
To address upgradeability and security, most of the device's processing power and software is located in the external glasses unit, which can be updated, while the implant remains a simpler, more permanent component.
The company's technology has been successfully tested in long-term animal studies, and they are now preparing to move into human clinical trials.
The development of such complex medical devices is a long and challenging journey, involving everything from fundamental material science and R&D to securing investment and navigating regulatory approval.

Full episode transcript

Christian: what your device is, from my understanding, it's like a pair of glasses that have a camera connected to an implant in the back of your head. The stimulus from the camera stimulates the brain and that is what allows a person to see. Frederik: Cybersecurity, this is obviously important as this is wireless communication between the several different parts of the device. A malignant attacker might, for example, also turn the stimulation up to dangerous levels for example. Christian: the lifespan of like 15, 20 years. That's one of the cybersecurity challenges with implantables or neurostimulators is, you know, you've got some sort of encryption technology. It's highly probable that that encryption technology is going to be broken or compromised. The encryption no longer is valid. Christian: Hi, welcome back to another episode of the Med Device Cyber Podcast. Today we have a guest Frederik Ceyssens and he has a cool invention or technology that can restore vision uh for people that have blindness. So we're up for an exciting episode today. So before we get started, um, I met Frederik I think the first time in Portugal, like a couple of years ago at an event. And uh, that was in 2024, I believe. And now here we are in 2026. So you've made quite a bit of progress on your device since then. So maybe you could tell us a little bit about your background and uh your company and what the technology involves. Frederik: Great to be here, Christian. Thanks for inviting me. Uh, basically uh, I have been a researcher in neural implants for about 10 years at the University of Leuven in Belgium. And I was working with a neurosurgeon and this guy was interested in recording in cavities that you get in the brain after the tumor has been resected or after there has had been a major hemorrhage. Typically, then there is some kind of permanent cavity that formed uh which is of course kind of a diseased part of the tissue, and he wanted to try to record signals in that cavity to uh see if he could base therapies on them or at least learn something scientifically. Um and for that I actually developed our first very ultra flexible microelectrode arrays. So these things basically were kind of umbrella-shaped and I could nicely fit to the form of any cavity that you would have uh somewhere in the brain. We had some tests on on on rats. There were some papers published but it wasn't too spectacular so we didn't really have like a major breakthrough there. But then at the end of the project with my background in in microtechnology and also a bit of medicine as well, um, I was really wondering if we couldn't use it for another application. And I really came to this field of visual prosthesis. Because um something similar in in uh cochlear implants was already working pretty well and and people that are now completely deaf can often understand conversations again, can lead a normal life after getting a cochlear implant. But something similar for blind people hadn't been uh produced yet. So people tried in the past, like there was for example the Orion device, the there was the Argus device, there was a German company called um by uh called, what was it called again? Um anyway, it was a German company that uh uh also built a retinal implant. But the performance was never good enough. Uh and the idea that that we had was why not try to go go directly into the visual cortex of the brain, not not uh try to place implants in in in the remaining parts of the eye like the the retina where everything is extremely close together and where it's very difficult to selectively uh stimulate the nerves. In the visual cortex of the brain, everything is much more spread out and it looked like a much, a much better target for for a neurostimulation-based therapy for blindness. Though of course, it's also more invasive. It it's of course very understandable that people had aimed for implanting a device in the eye of blind people before because it's much more accessible and it's uh uh there's going to be uh an easier surgery involved. But okay, up to now, it hasn't been shown to work uh good enough. The the the brain was really uh promising and that's why we we we aimed for that and we started a company to develop this device five years ago. It was quite a journey since then, right? So we uh, we started with almost nothing. So we uh, it was too early for the university to support it, so they didn't really want us to be a spin-off company of the university. And I had also no IP. And on the other hand, I tried to I thought actually at that point that we already had the technology more or less in hand, but that turned out not to be the case. So we had to really do a lot of additional R&D.

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