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Your phone could soon act as a glaucoma testing device

We've seen smartphones work as electrocardiograms, so why not use them to test for glaucoma at home? That's the idea behind Cambridge Consultants' Viewi headset

Innovative technology from product design and development firm Cambridge Consultants could help combat glaucoma – a major global cause of blindness, second only to cataracts. It offers a low-cost, user-friendly way of diagnosing and monitoring the disease – so that early intervention and treatment can help slow its progress.

Glaucoma affects more than 60 million people worldwide. It leads to optic nerve damage as a result of abnormally high fluid pressure inside the eye. The most common form is open-angle glaucoma, which affects around 95% of patients. It causes a gradual loss of peripheral vision – but can be virtually unnoticeable to the patient until they have lost half of their visual field. The damage is irreversible so, without treatment, an individual can become totally blind.


Rather than hitting the hospital or optometrist's to monitor your vision, you could simply slide your phone into a head-mounted Gear VR-like holster. From there, a mobile app reproduces the flashing light patterns used to test for open-angle glaucoma. A Bluetooth remote acts as the input device for patients to press when they see a flashing light and, really, that's about it, according to the press release.


It should only take about five minutes per eye, and the results are supposedly straightforward and easy enough to understand. They're even shareable with your eye doctor. The idea here is to make it easier to monitor the progress of the disease and augment, rather than replace, traditional testing methods. The folks at Cambridge Consultants also hope that it'll have a positive impact in developing countries where traditional medical procedures and facilities aren't readily available. At around £20 ($26.53), it could be the most cost effective method, too.


Source: Cambridge Consultants

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