PreciEye

Measuring intraocular pressure (IOP) is important for the early diagnosis of glaucoma and thus for preventing blindness in affected individuals. Elevated IOP is a risk factor for the disease and, unlike other symptoms such as restricted visual field, can be detected in the early stages of the disease.  The standard method for measuring IOP is applanation tonometry. However, these measurements are usually performed by an ophthalmologist, which means that pressure peaks and fluctuations throughout the day can be overlooked.
The PreciEye project therefore aims to develop a device that allows patients to measure their own daily pressure curve independently. The measurement method is based on acoustic stimulation of the eye and direct optical measurement of the resulting corneal oscillation, which depends on the IOP. The IOP can be determined by analyzing the oscillation. One advantage of this method is that it is contactless, which reduces the risk of infection and is as gentle as possible for the user.

The feasibility of this method is being investigated under controlled conditions in the laboratory using enucleated porcine eyes. Machine learning algorithms are used to evaluate the measurement data, taking into account various parameters of the eye, such as corneal thickness, and also detecting erroneous measurements. In order to test the method on the human eye, it will finally be transferred to a functional demonstrator.