Tactile Interface for Eye-Mountable Device Presbyopia Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Presbyopia, a progressive age-related loss of accommodative strength, affects nearly 1.7 billion people worldwide, leading to increased blur at near distances, and existing solutions fail to effectively address this issue.
Innovation Solution
An eye-mountable device with a tactile sensor system, including pressure-sensitive sensors, a capacitive sensor, piezoelectric sensor, and piezoresistive sensor, which allows direct user communication and control over the accommodation actuator to adjust the focal distance of the contact lens.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If existing solutions for presbyopia are used, then the accommodative strength loss is not effectively addressed, but adding complex accommodation systems increases device complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses the eye's own ciliary muscle and natural accommodation mechanism to perform the focusing work, rather than requiring an external artificial muscle or complex mechanical system. The contact lens simply modulates light based on the eye's natural accommodation state, making the eye itself serve the function of accommodation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces complex mechanical accommodation systems with an optical modulation approach using a contact lens that varies light transmission based on accommodation state. This substitutes mechanical lens movement with optical property modulation, significantly reducing device complexity.
2Productivity
If automated accommodation control is implemented, then productivity is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates due to loss of manual control
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors the eye's accommodation state through sensors detecting ciliary muscle activity or lens position, and uses this feedback to automatically adjust light transmission. This closed-loop feedback enables both high productivity (automatic real-time adjustment) and maintains ease of operation (the system responds to the user's natural accommodation attempts).
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables users to manually adjust the focal distance of the contact lens, providing effective compensation for presbyopia by allowing direct communication and control through tactile inputs, enhancing visual clarity for both near and far-field vision.
Implementation Method 1
pressure-sensitive sensors disposed around a periphery of the electronic contact lens
Implementation Method 2
capacitive sensor disposed around a periphery of the electronic contact lens
Implementation Method 3
piezoelectric sensor disposed around a periphery of the electronic contact lens
Implementation Method 4
piezoresistive sensor disposed around a periphery of the electronic contact lens
Data Source
AI summary
An eye-mountable device includes an enclosure material shaped to be removably mounted over a cornea and to permit eyelid motion when the enclosure material is so mounted. The eye-mountable device also includes a tactile sensor system, including one or more pressure-sensitive sensors, disposed within the enclosure material and coupled to output a signal in response to pressure applied to the one or more pressure-sensitive sensors by a user. A controller is disposed within the enclosure material and electrically coupled to the tactile sensor system to receive the signal and, in response to the signal, control at least one other piece of circuitry in the eye-mountable device.