SBIR Phase II: Feasibility of a Wearable Blindness Prevention System

SBIR 第二阶段：可穿戴式防盲系统的可行性

• 批准号: 1951039
• 负责人: Joshua Park
• 金额: $ 71.48万
• 依托单位: GLOBE BIOMEDICAL LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-04-01 至 2023-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1951039&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; Feasibility; Wearable

The broader/commercial impact of this SBIR Phase II project aims to further advance novel wearable technology for glaucoma patients and prepare the technology for broad adoption. Glaucoma, the leading cause of irreversible blindness, has an unknown cause and affects more than 70 million people worldwide. Currently, there is no cure for glaucoma, but early can often save one’s vision. Eye pressure is the most commonly used measure for predicting and monitoring glaucoma. The wearable technology developed under this SBIR project will monitor eye pressure throughout the day and allow clinicians to provide a higher quality of care for at-risk patients. The technology uses photographs to measure how the eye stretches under high pressure. This project aims to adapt the imaging technology into stylish eyeglass frames and develop custom software for converting photographs to eye pressure measurements, informing providers and improving compliance associated with at-home medication. This project aims to advance a novel technology in which wearable eyeglass frames are used to track intraocular pressure (IOP) by imaging the level of pressure-induced mechanical strain associated with the tissue at the front of the eye - specifically, exposed sclera. IOP is, by far, the most commonly used metric for predicting glaucoma, the leading cause of irreversible blindness. In this project, a custom machine learning algorithm will identify characteristic patterns residing in small regions of the scleral images and, by tracking pressure-induced displacement of the regions, calculate IOP. The key objective of Phase II is to accurately measure IOP in real-world conditions with human in-vivo studies, incorporating necessary electronics in the frames. The technology will be further developed in order to improve correlation of the algorithm with conventional IOP captured during the image collection period.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该 SBIR 二期项目的更广泛/商业影响旨在进一步推进针对青光眼患者的新型可穿戴技术，并为该技术的广泛采用做好准备。青光眼是导致不可逆性失明的主要原因，其病因不明，影响着全世界超过 7000 万人。目前，青光眼尚无治愈方法，但早期往往可以挽救视力。眼压是预测和监测青光眼最常用的测量方法。该 SBIR 项目开发的可穿戴技术将全天监测眼压，使临床医生能够为高危患者提供更高质量的护理。该技术使用照片来测量眼睛在高压下的伸展情况。 该项目旨在将成像技术应用到时尚的眼镜框架中，并开发定制软件，将照片转换为眼压测量值，通知提供者并提高与家庭用药相关的依从性。该项目旨在推进一项新技术，使用可佩戴眼镜框通过对与眼睛前部组织（特别是暴露的巩膜）相关的压力引起的机械应变水平进行成像来跟踪眼压（IOP）。 到目前为止，眼压是预测青光眼最常用的指标，而青光眼是导致不可逆性失明的主要原因。在该项目中，定制机器学习算法将识别巩膜图像小区域中的特征模式，并通过跟踪压力引起的区域位移来计算眼压。第二阶段的主要目标是通过人体体内研究在现实条件下准确测量眼压，并将必要的电子设备纳入框架中。该技术将得到进一步开发，以提高算法与图像采集期间捕获的传统 IOP 的相关性。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。