Medical expert of the article
New publications
A smartphone device has been developed that diagnoses cataract at an early stage
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
Developed a nozzle on a smartphone to detect cataracts at an early stage. The device is placed on the screen of the mobile device. Familiar with the technology of its work, the user can give feedback to the program, which will determine the parameters of clouding the lens.
An optical nozzle called Catra is needed to convert visible light into a collimated (consisting of parallel beams) beam. The eye focuses such rays in the central region of the retina, and for him they seem to be a fixed point.
If a person is sick with cataracts, at a certain point in time - when the rays pass through the area of turbidity - this point will begin to blur. After a short preliminary training, the patient will know when and how this occurs, after which the program determines the location, size, shape and density of the cloud zone.
At the current stage of cataract treatment, this amount of information is superfluous: ophthalmologists visually determine the degree of the disease and decide on the need to remove the lens, explains the head of the development team, Professor Ramesh Raskar of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). On the other hand, in the future there may be more advanced therapies that do not require surgical intervention, for which the mentioned information will be useful.
In any case, Catra is much cheaper than eye examination equipment - even in its stationary version, using a dual LCD monitor for more thorough diagnosis. And since the system does not require the presence of a qualified physician, it can be used in poor countries where the number of blind people due to cataracts is very high.
In addition, and this is almost the main thing, Catra allows you to detect the disease at an early stage. And this was convincingly shown by preliminary tests: one of 22 experimental subjects, several months before this was considered healthy, the device revealed a cataract. Later it was confirmed by a traditional survey.
[