I-Corps: A Mixed Reality Solution for Diagnosis and Recovery of Visual Function Losses due to Age-related, Degenerative Eye Diseases

I-Corps：混合现实解决方案，用于诊断和恢复因年龄相关的退行性眼病而导致的视觉功能丧失

• 批准号: 2037290
• 负责人: Alireza Tavakkoli
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: Board of Regents, NSHE, obo University of Nevada, Reno
• 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: 2020-08-15 至 2022-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2037290&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Mixed; Reality; Solution; Diagnosis

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development and translation of a head mounted display system that provides eye-care professionals and patients with affordable, reliable, and convenient technologies for diagnosing each individual patient’s disease, predicting progression risks, and designing effective vision rehabilitation protocols. A spectrum of conditions including retina ganglion cell (RGC) degeneration, optic disc edema, neovascularization, and retinal hemorrhaging affect the human visual system and are associated with progressive vision threatening diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy (DR), ischemic optic neuropathy (ION), and glaucoma. According to the National Eye Institute (NEI), these eye diseases are expected to affect over 14 million patients in 2020. The main commercial potential of the proposed technology is in eye-care (ophthalmology and optometry) as well as low-vision rehabilitation therapy. In addition, 14 million patients suffering from many forms of vision-threatening retina or optic nerve diseases will benefit from using the proposed technology to improve their functions of daily living. Vision researchers and scientists who study the human visual system will be able to use the product to advance knowledge about the human eye and vision to improve the status of eye care in the U.S.This I-Corps project is based on the development of a mixed-reality product that utilizes machine learning and computer vision to model patient's perceptual-functional vision deficit. The deficits are measured in a binocular manner, i.e. for each eye separately. This makes the proposed technology capable of modeling the vision loss for each eye independently. By utilizing these models the proposed device appropriately modifies the visual stimuli to help patients recover lost visual function. The device also may be used by the patient to undertake several functional vision assessments to measure visual fields losses, color and contrast sensitivity, stereo-vision, and acuity, at home. By performing these tests, the proposed device builds baseline measures for each patient and monitors the status and progression of the patient's vision loss over time. The results of these tests may be communicated with the patient's eye care provider to determine suitable interventions when the need arises. The product is based on recent research results integrating the capabilities of taking video captures from two independent cameras and modifying the visual stimuli for each eye independently. These functionalities may make the proposed device an invaluable low-vision aid for patients who have lost mobility and independence due to vision loss.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.

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发和翻译一种头戴式显示系统，为眼科护理专业人员和患者提供负担得起、可靠和方便的技术，用于诊断每个患者的疾病、预测进展风险和设计有效的视力康复方案。包括视网膜神经节细胞（RGC）变性、视盘水肿、新生血管和视网膜出血在内的一系列疾病影响人类视觉系统，并与进行性视力威胁疾病相关，如年龄相关性黄斑变性（AMD）、糖尿病视网膜病变（DR）、缺血性视神经病变（ION）和青光眼。根据美国国家眼科研究所（NEI）的数据，预计到2020年，这些眼疾将影响1400多万患者。该技术的主要商业潜力是眼保健（眼科和验光）以及低视力康复治疗。此外，1400万患有多种威胁视力的视网膜或视神经疾病的患者将受益于使用拟议的技术来改善他们的日常生活功能。研究人类视觉系统的视觉研究人员和科学家将能够使用该产品来推进有关人眼和视觉的知识，以改善美国的眼部护理状况。I-Corps项目基于混合现实产品的开发，该产品利用机器学习和计算机视觉来模拟患者的感知功能视力缺陷。缺陷以双眼的方式测量，即每只眼睛分别测量。这使得所提出的技术能够独立地对每只眼睛的视力损失进行建模。利用这些模型，所提出的装置适当地修改视觉刺激，以帮助患者恢复失去的视觉功能。该设备还可用于患者在家中进行几种功能性视力评估，以测量视野损失、颜色和对比度敏感度、立体视觉和敏锐度。通过执行这些测试，该设备为每位患者建立基线测量，并监测患者视力丧失的状态和进展情况。这些测试的结果可以与患者的眼科保健提供者沟通，以便在需要时确定适当的干预措施。该产品是基于最近的研究成果，整合了从两个独立的摄像头拍摄视频的能力，并独立地修改每只眼睛的视觉刺激。这些功能可能使该装置成为因视力丧失而失去行动能力和独立性的患者的宝贵的低视力辅助设备。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。