The app allows the mobile to be used as a corneal topographer, a piece of equipment used in ophthalmology to calculate the shape of the cornea and to be able to adapt the contact lenses to each person.
It is the first mobile topographer to calculate the shape of the cornea
It can be used to detect diseases of the cornea and even monitor corneal injuries
If each eye is different, logically, contact lenses should be made to measure. Be that as it may, by and by, this isn’t typically the situation, which causes its relinquishment by clients. As per a review distributed in the diary Contact Lens Spectrum, one out of four standard delicate contact focal points can’t give an ideal fit dependent exclusively upon the measurement of the cornea. This is confirmed by David Merino, creator of MoCoTo: “a quarter of people who wear contact lenses stop using them because they have discomfort because they have not been properly adapted”.
Experts Opinion
Merino, who is a researcher at the Scene Understanding and Artificial Intelligence Lab (SUNAI) group and a professor of Computer Science, Multimedia, and Telecommunications Studies, has been a finalist with his project at the ninth edition of Spin UOC, the conference to promote entrepreneurship, innovation and the transfer of the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), coordinated by the Hubbik platform.
Custom contact lenses
The lens is in contact with the cornea, which is a spherical surface. So when designing it, this curvature must be taken into account so that it adapts well to it. “Just a few opticians have a group to customize the focal points. The idea is that this topographer integrated into the mobile reaches all of them with a more affordable price, below a thousand euros,” anticipates the researcher. How does it work? It consists of an accessory, similar to a camera lens, that adapts to the mobile and serves to illuminate the eye. Through an application, the mobile takes a photo of the reflection of light on the cornea and calculates its shape. “In this way, the optician can personalize the client’s contact lenses and offer a better product,” explains David Merino.
Marta Massip, a researcher at the UOC’s Health Sciences Department, and Miguel Merino, project mentor and member of the Cottet team, have also collaborated in the development of MoCoTo.
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Diagnosis of diseases
The corneal topographer can detect diseases of the cornea and even follow-up injuries in this tissue. “It is essentially used to analyze keratoconus. So, it is a genuinely common infection that influences the inner design of the cornea and causes its disfigurement. It has ramifications for vision. Somewhat recently, treatment has given the idea that permits halting the development of this infection”, makes sense David Merino.
Although the product is aimed at optician professionals. According to the researcher, they have also thought of exploring other ways of using it in the future. Such as the possibility that patients can use it to monitor diseases that they have previously been diagnosed with. Also, being a portable device, MoCoTo can be taken to remote areas and reach people with mobility problems.