VR Visual Field Assessment Using Head Tracking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current visual field analysis techniques, such as perimetry, are costly, inconvenient, and often unreliable due to the need for patients to maintain fixed head positions, leading to physical discomfort and reduced fixation accuracy, which compromises the effectiveness of the tests.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that utilize a head-mountable virtual reality device to display fixation and test targets in a patient's visual field, allowing natural eye movements and using user input to determine target detection, thereby improving comfort and accuracy while reducing the likelihood of false positives.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If traditional perimetry techniques are used to assess visual field, then measurement precision can be achieved, but patient comfort deteriorates due to the need to maintain fixed head positions
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of requiring the patient to maintain a fixed head position while the target moves, the patent inverts the approach by moving the fixation target along with the patient's head movements. This allows the patient to move their head naturally while the target maintains its position relative to the patient's visual field, thereby maintaining fixation accuracy without compromising comfort
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts the position of the fixation target based on real-time detection of head movements. By continuously tracking head position and updating the target location accordingly, the system maintains the target's stability in the patient's visual field despite head movements, preserving both measurement precision and patient comfort
2Productivity
If multiple perimetry tests are administered to a patient within a short time window, then productivity increases, but reliability of individual test results deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adapts the testing procedure by continuously monitoring fixation quality and automatically adjusting or repeating tests when degradation is detected. This dynamic quality control ensures that even when multiple tests are administered in quick succession, each individual test maintains high reliability through real-time monitoring and adaptive adjustments
3Measurement precision
If a patient is instructed to keep head still during perimetry, then measurement precision improves, but ease of operation deteriorates due to physical discomfort
Solution Approach 1:
Rather than constraining the patient's head to remain still, the system inverts the traditional approach by allowing free head movement and instead moving the fixation target to track with the patient's head. This maintains the functional equivalent of fixed fixation while eliminating the physical constraint, thereby preserving measurement precision without causing discomfort
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems for assessing a visual field of a person are provided. Information can be presented to a person undergoing a visual field testing in a manner that utilizes the person's natural tendency to look at an object that is displayed so that it attracts the person's attention. A fixation target can be displayed on a display viewed by a user. Once it is determined that the user has viewed the fixation target and the person's eye(s) location is determined, a test target is displayed on the display in a location corresponding to a location on the user's visual field. The test target is determined to be either detected or missed based on user input acquired as the user is viewing the display.