Jump to comment:

• Video glass based vision testing for Home / School vision testing may make testing complete
  Sunil Moreker
  Published on: 8 April 2015

• Published on: 8 April 2015

  Video glass based vision testing for Home / School vision testing may make testing complete

  • Sunil Moreker, Eye Surgeon

  Vision testing is a very tedious process. If a complete testing including contrast testing,colour testing,amsler test,glare test,speed of reading and other tests are undertaken it may take a lot of time.It is a reality that even today visual acuity testing alone is the deciding factor for undertaking cataract surgery. It has been noted by some authors that lack of government-funded routine eye examinations is associated w...

  Show More

  Vision testing is a very tedious process. If a complete testing including contrast testing,colour testing,amsler test,glare test,speed of reading and other tests are undertaken it may take a lot of time.It is a reality that even today visual acuity testing alone is the deciding factor for undertaking cataract surgery. It has been noted by some authors that lack of government-funded routine eye examinations is associated with a reduced incidence of self-reported glaucoma and cataracts, probably due to reduced detection rates (1) this only means that some method of home testing may be essential.It is also possible that many kids would not go blind due to amblyopia if vision was to be tested .So it may be useful to test vision at home or school, which can be reported to the eye surgeon. Some authors have envisaged a lay person administered vision test which may be valid for identifying amblyopia in a controlled environment thus making a cost-effective and easily accessible vision screening performed by lay people a reality (2). A school vision screening program involving only school teachers was found to have resulted in more efficient screening than a program including professionals with the costs being a third of what would have been spend and it was found to also improve compliance with regards to hospital referral (3). Many authors have tried mobile app based methods for vision and concluded that while the results are not interchangeable with paper-based charts, mobile app tablet-based tests of reading speed are reliable and rapid to perform, with the potential to capture functional visual ability in research studies and clinical practice(4). Such apps can be easily incorporated into video glasses routinely used by children in video games.

  We used a video glass available for playing video games and projected vision charts at an appropriate distance into the glass and tested vision at home. The fact that the glass had covers on the side, nullified the effect of ambient light. Also some homes in India may be actually cubicles and so may not have the requisite distance for testing and so in such cases a mobile app based visual testing with charts projected into the video glass helps in such situations. Following the ease of testing and the improved ability of patients or care takers who are now being able to test vision at home; different aspects of vision are now being tested by patients or care takers. When this becomes more common even eye surgeons will begin to do more tests.

  References:-

  1) Chan CH, Trope GE, Badley EM, Buys YM, Jin YP. The impact of lack of government-insured routine eye examinations on the incidence of self- reported glaucoma, cataracts, and vision loss. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2014 Dec 9;55(12):8544-9. doi: 10.1167/iovs.14-15361. 2) Longmuir SQ, Pfeifer W, Shah SS, Olson R. Validity of a layperson- administered Web-based vision screening test. J AAPOS. 2015 Feb;19(1):29- 32. doi:10.1016/j.jaapos.2014.10.021 3) Priya A, Veena K, Thulasiraj R, Fredrick M, Venkatesh R, Sengupta S, BassettK. Vision screening by teachers in southern Indian schools: testing a new "all class teacher" model. Ophthalmic Epidemiol. 2015 Feb;22(1):60- 5. doi:10.3109/09286586.2014.988877. 4) Kingsnorth A, Wolffsohn JS. Mobile app reading speed test. Br J Ophthalmol.2014 Oct 29. pii: bjophthalmol-2014-305818. doi:10.1136/bjophthalmol-2014-305818.

  Conflict of Interest:

  None declared

  Show Less

  Conflict of Interest:
  None declared.

  • Back to top