SBIR-STTR Award

The broader impact /commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to significantly improve access to vision care for all Americans via a low-cost vision exam kiosk for supermarkets and pharmacies. A key technical component for reaching commercialization and scalability is the development of a contactless and autonomous eye scanner that accurately measures prescription numbers in under 10 seconds. The kiosk enables retailers that Americans already visit on average 20-30 times per year to offer instant vision exams and reports, eye prescriptions reviewed remotely by physicians, and access to high quality but affordable corrective eyewear. With 175 million Americans benefiting from vision correction, this solution could profoundly impact vision care across all communities. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project investigates the feasibility of a novel contactless eye refractor for use in a self-serve and autonomous vision care station for pharmacies and supermarkets. Eye scanning is done via the photo-refractive principle enabling autonomous ocular refraction in mere seconds. A key issue with leading photo-refractor configurations is the resulting drift stemming from gaze misalignment. Instead of refracting single positions in the visual field, the proposed novel configuration refracts the central and peripheral visual field simultaneously, thus guaranteeing the measurement of foveal refractive error. This novel configuration will use commonly available low-cost components and can be manufactured at a fraction of the cost of commercially autorefractors. A software model of the system will be used to efficiently optimize the configuration, after which the design will be built and tested. A physical model eye will be developed and used for testing to confirm the accuracy at a multitude of gaze angles and to confirm result-decoupling of gaze alignment.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to improve access to vision care and eyeglasses for all Americans through a self-serve, rapid vision exam kiosk for retail stores and public spaces. An estimated 175 million Americans suffer from blurry vision, of which 30 million live without eyeglasses. By partnering with retailers, pharmacies, and supermarkets, the company has the potential to reach a large number of Americans via a network of kiosks spread across the US. With 70% of the population benefitting from eyeglasses, the development of the company?s rapid vision exam kiosk aims to democratize vision care and eliminate the gap in easily accessible vision exams.This project develops a gaze-independent, contactless autorefractor technology (GIPR) for use in a self-serve and autonomous vision exam kiosk. Gaze-camera misalignment is a leading contributor to accuracy drift in autorefractors using the retinal reflex method. Eliminating the gaze alignment requirement marks a significant milestone in the company?s development. The GIPR design refracts the inner visual field in a single capture, thus providing a measurement of refractive error at the subject?s foveal position. Building on the success of the Phase I feasibility project, this Phase II project will continue the development of the GIPR module towards commercial readiness by optimizing hardware layout and improving data processing pipeline throughput.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.