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Date: Friday, December 4, 2015 Location: The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, 2318 Fillmore St., San Francisco CA 94115 The goal of this invitation-only conference was to identify needs for future research in rehabilitation technology, methods for the blind and visually impaired population, and those with dual sensory loss. Program: 8:45 – 9:15 Check-in and coffee/pastries 9:15 – 9:25 Welcome 9:25 – 9:45 Keynote: Paul Schroeder (link to YouTube video) 9:45 – 10:45 Panel 1: Changing Populations. How should we change our approach to assessing and addressing visual impairments? (link to YouTube…

This vision test shows random word sequences that prevent the prediction of upcoming words by linguistic criteria and is simple to score in a clinical setting. It combines the standardized format of the MNread test with sequences of random words and letters, like in the Pepper test. We have used this test on hundreds of patients with maculopathies and on healthy subjects to measure their reading speed and register errors. Reading speed was always higher for continuous text than for random word sequences, even in normally sighted subjects. The number of errors made was always higher than for…

The Macular Mapping Test (MMT) is a tool for the assessment of the topography of vision. It is a quick and low-cost alternative to conventional perimetry in practical low vision care. While standard perimetry uses a detection task, the MMT measures the recognition of single letters in the center and near periphery (+/- 10 deg) of the visual field. Their sizes increase according to eccentricity and can be shown at different contrast levels. Each letter is displayed only for a brief moment (250 ms). One test run of 36 trials takes only about 3 minutes. We have tested patients with early age…

Patients with spots of diminished or no vision (scotomas) often do not realize the nature of their deficit. This technique can help patients to heighten their awareness of scotomas. In the process of learning eccentric viewing, several stages have to be passed: 1. Patients use their own hand movements to find the location of best vision in the visual field of one eye, while the other eye is closed and gaze is fixed. 2. Patients use eye movements to adjust gaze so that a target in a stable location looks best. 3. Coordinate eye and hand movements, so that a magnifier can be moved where it is…

Diminished motion perception was used as indicator of early effects of eye diseases in the periphery of the visual field. We investigated whether subtle defects in patients with age-related maculopathy (ARM) can be found in regions of the retina that lie outside the macula, i.e. 10 deg eccentricity. The results showed that such defect can indeed be found. Bottom line: Early ARM already affects areas of the retina that do not belong to the macula. Purpose -To study the dynamic visual field characteristics in age-related maculopathy (ARMD) we measured motion sensitivity, double-pulse resolution…

The RERC Center Grant funds a number of projects for blind and visually impaired persons. The projects broadly fall into the categories of Functional Assessment, Access to Spatial and Graphic Information, and STEM Education.

Most prior research on reading in people with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) has focused on those with advanced disease. The first goal of this project is to examine the visual, motor, and cognitive factors that contribute to reading performance in people with early to intermediate(E/I) AMD. A second goal is to compare those with E/I AMD to age-matched groups with no AMD, and with advanced disease to determine which characteristics of the E/I AMD participants more closely match those with advanced AMD. The final goal is to assess our E/I AMD participants longitudinally to determine…