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Inhabitants of remote communities, with little or no access to medical attention, may receive specialized support to know if they have eye problems, thanks to a compact device developed by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) .
The compact conical corneal topographer, developed by Manuel Campos García, a scientist from UNAM’s Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology (ICAT) , works with the same precision as commercial devices, and in 2019 will begin its patenting process.
By making such devices portable, ophthalmologists can take them to communities that require revisions and a more accurate diagnosis, UNAM said in a statement.
He explained that the cornea is a transparent film that allows for the iris, the pupil, and the inner chamber of the eye to focus on images correctly. If, due to natural or environmental issues, it changes or becomes deformed, it stops correctly perceiving what is happening around it.
Corneal topographers
are specialized units used to check the surface of the cornea and detect possible damage, he explained.
Campos García has been working for some time on systems that take advantage of available technologies to improve them and make them accessible to the bulk of the population. Hence his interest in developing new devices.
The most recent of them, the compact conical corneal topographer, makes use of three-dimensional vision systems and smartphones.
The scientist of the National Laboratory of Optics of the Vision remembered that some time ago he created a similar one that used a cone instead of a cylindrical shape. "But we wanted to make it smaller, so we worked on this new compact prototype, which covers more corneal surface."
With the size of a mobile phone, the device has a LED lighting system with points in ellipse . When paired with the camera of a phone, tablet, or with a small camera, it allows to reflect, amplify and observe the structure of the eye to assess damage.
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