The ubiquitous mobile phone is all set to turn into an eye specialist capable of detecting cataract in a jiffy. Equipped with a clip-on device and specially developed software, any smart phone can do the job of an ophthalmologist without the costly diagnostic equipment like slit-lamps that doctors currently use. This will soon become reality with an innovative technology developed by the Camera Culture group of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The group last year had unveiled a similar device, Netra, for testing eyes.
"The new device system basically works as radar for the human eye. Just as beam of weather radar sweeps across the sky to detect clouds, it sweeps a beam of light across the eye to detect the cloudy patches called cataracts," said Ramesh Raskar, head of the Camera Culture group, currently on a visit to India.
The device has already been tested in Brazil and found effective. The MIT team is now working with the Hyderabad-based L.V. Prasad Eye Institute for clinical studies in India. Cataract is a leading cause of preventable blindness in India.
A cataract-affected eye scatters and refracts light before it reaches the retina, caused by a fogging or clouding of the lens. The new device, Catra, can measure this deformation or clouding by allowing one to compare a good light path with a light path blocked by the cataract.
The methods for cataract detection used currently deploy 'back-scattering' which is observed and subjectively diagnosed. Such methods cannot detect early onset of cataract affected vision, as early opacities are difficult to detect.
Catra uses a 'forward scattering' technique, which allows patients or users to respond to what they visually experience. The device scans the lens section by section using a collimated beam of light.
The user sees certain patterns projected on mobile phone and presses a few buttons based on the quality of the image. This information is collected on the phone and allows one to diagnose progression or severity of the cataract. It can detect cataracts at an earlier stage than existing tests, because it can pick up changes in parts of the lens that have not yet become opaque.
Media Lab graduate student Vitor Pamplona, a member of the team developing Catra, explains that Catra "scans the lens of the eye and creates a map showing position, size, shape and density of cataracts." At present, this may be too much information for an ophthalmologist, who just has to decide whether to operate or not. Such detailed information, however, may be useful as and when new cataract therapies become available to treat specific areas of cloudiness, rather than removing the whole lens.
As reported in: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/story/massachusetts-institute-of-technology-develops-technology-to-detect-cataract/1/143682.html
"The new device system basically works as radar for the human eye. Just as beam of weather radar sweeps across the sky to detect clouds, it sweeps a beam of light across the eye to detect the cloudy patches called cataracts," said Ramesh Raskar, head of the Camera Culture group, currently on a visit to India.
The device has already been tested in Brazil and found effective. The MIT team is now working with the Hyderabad-based L.V. Prasad Eye Institute for clinical studies in India. Cataract is a leading cause of preventable blindness in India.
A cataract-affected eye scatters and refracts light before it reaches the retina, caused by a fogging or clouding of the lens. The new device, Catra, can measure this deformation or clouding by allowing one to compare a good light path with a light path blocked by the cataract.
The methods for cataract detection used currently deploy 'back-scattering' which is observed and subjectively diagnosed. Such methods cannot detect early onset of cataract affected vision, as early opacities are difficult to detect.
Catra uses a 'forward scattering' technique, which allows patients or users to respond to what they visually experience. The device scans the lens section by section using a collimated beam of light.
The user sees certain patterns projected on mobile phone and presses a few buttons based on the quality of the image. This information is collected on the phone and allows one to diagnose progression or severity of the cataract. It can detect cataracts at an earlier stage than existing tests, because it can pick up changes in parts of the lens that have not yet become opaque.
Media Lab graduate student Vitor Pamplona, a member of the team developing Catra, explains that Catra "scans the lens of the eye and creates a map showing position, size, shape and density of cataracts." At present, this may be too much information for an ophthalmologist, who just has to decide whether to operate or not. Such detailed information, however, may be useful as and when new cataract therapies become available to treat specific areas of cloudiness, rather than removing the whole lens.
As reported in: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/story/massachusetts-institute-of-technology-develops-technology-to-detect-cataract/1/143682.html