Childrens' vision-testing device could catch problems

According to figures reported by the University of Tennessee, even though 85 percent of a child’s learning is vision-related, about 80 percent of American children have never had their eyes tested before starting kindergarten.

Even when tests are performed, they are usually only capable of detecting no more than a couple of conditions.

Unfortunately, this means that vision-related learning disabilities such as dyslexia can be missed, and may not be noticed until they are well established.

Now, however, researchers at U Tennessee’s Space Institute have developed a new type of vision-testing system for young children, that could catch a variety of vision problems while they’re still reversible.

The device, known as the Dynamic Ocular Evaluation System (DOES), is reportedly inexpensive, kid-friendly, and only takes about a minute to learn how to use.

It was invented by Ying-Ling Ann Chen, a research assistant professor in physics. She was assisted by Lei Shi, a post-doctoral research associate in laser application, and Jim Lewis, a professor emeritus in physics.

"Vision screening is important at an early age to detect several different causes of vision disorders," said Chen.

"The few children that do get screened today aren't being screened adequately. For instance, many current screening methods do one eye at a time and studies show young eyes will accommodate significantly, and this causes inaccurate results."

Children using DOES simply sit and watch a three-minute cartoon, or play a computer game. No scary eye dilation is necessary, nor are any verbal responses from the child - this point is particularly important, as children taking eye tests are sometimes simply too young to know what their vision should be like, so what they tell clinicians can be misleading.

As the cartoon begins, a three-second procedure uses infra-red light to assess the child's ocular alignment, and checks for binocular refractive risks, high-order aberrations, ocular scattering, and significant neural problems.

This is followed by dynamic tests for less significant signs of abnormal ocular alignment, neural responses, and amblyopia (lazy eye).


The researchers plan on adding more tests, that would use the child's vision to check for mental problems including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, autism, and dyslexia.

All of the data and images are digitally recorded, and can be sent electronically to specialists if needed.

Chen and her U Tennessee colleagues hope that DOES could someday become a standard piece of equipment in pediatrician's offices.

"By not testing our youth, we are potentially missing the window for effective treatment for a lot of conditions," she stated.

Video Games: A Cure for Lazy Eye - Amblyopia

At the American Academy of Opthalmology's annual meeting in Orlando, Florida, a team led by Somen Ghosh of the Micro Surgical Eye Clinic in Kolkata, India, reported that video game therapy improved the visual acuity of 10- to 18-year-olds with amblyopia, or "lazy eye".

This comes hot on the heels of similar findings from a study of adults with the condition, published in PLoS Biology by a team led by Roger Li and Dennis Levi of the University of California, Berkeley.

Even more impressive results may be on the horizon, as video games are combined with another approach, known as "perceptual learning".

Amblyopia occurs when the neural connections from one eye to the brain fail to develop normally. Over time, the brain reacts by ignoring the blurry input from this "weaker" eye.

The condition can be treated in childhood by patching the good eye and using visual training exercises to build the faulty neural connections - but the dogma has until recently been that little can be done after about the age of nine.

The idea of using video games stemmed from the discovery that expert gamers have unusually strong visual skills.

Subsequent studies have shown that action games can improve contrast sensitivity in people with normal vision.

Ghosh's studies involved children and teenagers with amblyopia who received the standard treatment of patch, eyeglasses and visual exercises, with or without supplementary treatments.

Even the group given just the basic treatment showed some improvement after one year - but those who were also instructed to play first-person shooter or driving games each day did noticeably better.



In adults, some of the best results in treating amblyopia have not used computer games, but instead trained people to distinguish blurry grey patterns known as Gabor patches.

In 2004, a team led by Uri Polat of Tel Aviv University showed that this perceptual learning resulted in two-fold improvements to sufferers' contrast sensitivity.

But even Polat, who has recently applied a similar approach to treating the natural deterioration in close vision that happens with age, concedes that the exercises are a bit boring for teens.

So what about combining perceptual learning with gaming? That's now being tried by Levi's lab, in collaboration with a team led by Daphne Bavelier of the University of Rochester in New York.

The researchers have embedded Gabor patches into a modified version of the first-person shooter Unreal Tournament, which they are now testing as a treatment for amblyopia.

"You have to shoot at the patches," Bavelier explains. "If you don't they transform into nasty bots that are really difficult to kill.

Are Educational Tools of Technology Damaging Your Child’s Eyesight?

Computers and three-dimensional (3D) imaging may be a big help to students academically, but almost one-third of parents are concerned that such devices are damaging their child’s eyesight.

The 2011 American Eye-Q survey from the American Optometric Association (AOA) indicates that 53 percent of respondents having children 18 or younger believe that 3D viewing can cause harm to a child’s vision or eyes, while 29 percent are highly concerned that their child may suffer damage to their eyes from prolonged use of computers or hand-held electronic devices.

Today, the majority of schools incorporate computers and 3D imaging as educational tools for students. While both are valuable teaching aids, in addition to being vital to a child’s academic success, many parents are worried that their children may experience eye damage from constantly using these modern marvels of technology.

According to the survey, 62 percent of parents surveyed estimated that their children spent from one to four hours daily using a computer, video game, mp3 player or hand-held electronic device.

According to James Sheedy, O.D., Ph.D., an AOA technology and vision expert, “Today’s classroom technology is extremely visual, making it critical for students to maintain excellent eye health.

Binocular vision, focusing abilities, as well as nearsightedness and farsightedness, should be checked by an eye doctor yearly, particularly as students head back to school.”

The steady use of the latest high-tech devices can cause students to experience a wide range of adverse effects that the AOA refers to as computer vision syndrome (CVS). Symptoms can include; fatigue, headaches, eye strain, neck pain, double or blurred vision, and tired or burning eyes.

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Bionic eye restores sight in the blind: Approved for European market

Eric Selby likes his bionic eye. When the glasses are on his face, he can see. Sort of.

He can only see shapes in white, grey and black. But Selby is one of the first in the world to have an implant in his right eye. So how does he feel about his artificial retina?

But Selby told his local newspaper: “This might not be a life-changing experience for me but if it can help kids in the future then I think it’s worth it.” Selby travels to London frequently to participate in the clinical trial he enrolled in.

The company behind the bionic eye, California-based Second Sight, got a green light to bring its retinal prosthesis treatment to the European Market.

The Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System takes in video images from a camera.

It’s easy to wear, the patient’s glasses are made with an attached camera. The signals are then transmitted via pulses sent to the implant in the eye, where the signal is read by the retina’s working cells.

Now, the vision isn’t 20/20 or anything, but images in the form of shapes and light/dark can be sent from the chip to the brain’s optic nerve thanks to 60 electrodes that pick up some differences.

According to the company, the 30 blind patients participating in the implant study could see “large letters, locate the position of objects and the best could read short words.”

In case you are still wondering how the system works, the BBC described how the bionic eye system worked for patients at one of ten clinical trial locations around the world. Okay, so what about FDA approval? Well, that’s still pending.

For now, this bionic eye can only help people with retinitis pigmentosa. That’s a start for the field of synthetic sight…giving the blind a chance to see again. Perhaps, this bionic eye system will offer long-term solutions for patients with other types of advanced retinal degenerative diseases in the future.

Unfortunately, the whole system isn’t cheap though, according to The Australian. The implant, glasses, camera and battery will set a patient back $100,000… and the surgery could cost as much as $15,000.

Other companies in the space include German-based Retina Implant and Bionic Vision Australia.

A Bionic Eye Comes to Market [Technology Review]

Video: Bionic eye gives partial sight to blind [CBS]

Universal Eye Problem Leads To Better Vision

Let's talk about 'Crowding' (macromolecular crowding), the phenomenon when people are less able to differentiate letters if they are surrounded by other letters. A recent study claims that it actually leads to better vision.

This is one of the conclusions of Dr Frans Cornelissen, who together with Dr Ronald van den Berg and Prof. Jos Roerdink is the first to succeed in explaining crowding with a mathematical model.

'At this moment in time our model is mainly interesting in a fundamental sense', says Cornelissen.

'In the long term, however, it may acquire practical applications, for example when designing learning material for children with dyslexia.'

In order to illustrate the phenomenon of crowding, Cornelissen makes the letter E, a cross and the digit 8 appear on his monitor. People who look at the cross in the middle are able to recognise the E and the 8 without any problems, even if they are standing off to the side.

However, once more letters and digits appear on the screen, the E and the 8 are suddenly unrecognisable. Everything runs into each other. 'And this despite the fact that nothing has changed in the E and the 8', says Cornelissen.

'The reason you can no longer recognise the E and the 8 is crowding. That limitation is locked into our brains and appears in everything we look at. You could call it a universal eye problem, because objects are nearly always surrounded by other objects.'

Image strengthening trick
Although crowding has always been regarded as a sight limitation, the research by Cornelissen and his colleagues has revealed that it actually helps us. 'In fact, people see better as a result of crowding', states Cornelissen.

'Our eyes are continually being bombarded with information, and our brains have to decide what is important. Simulations conducted with our model show that crowding appears to help make the important information much clearer.

If you look at pictures without crowding, the illustration always stays a bit fuzzy. However, if you then apply crowding, the edges of letters and objects in an image become much sharper.

Crowding is thus an image strengthening trick by the brain to differentiate between important and useless information. We have to do more research to determine exactly how this strengthening works. So far, the model has only been tested on a limited number of pictures.'

Dyslexia
Cornelissen emphasises that the model is currently only interesting in a fundamental sense for a better understanding of our brain functions, but at the same time he sees a number of potential practical applications in the field of dyslexia.

'Previous research has shown that people with dyslexia have more problems with crowding. Our model can simulate how someone with normal sight identifies a text and how that differs from someone with more problems with crowding.

It will probably turn out that someone with extra crowding needs the letters to be further apart before they become clear. Our model can thus calculate the optimum way to present things to someone with dyslexia. This will probably not completely remove the dyslexia, because there's more to the problem than just crowding. However, it could certainly reduce the consequences.'

Source: University of Groningen
Website: http://www.rug.nl/