Interactive occlusion system

• US 20030214630A1
• Filed: 05/17/2002
• Published: 11/20/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Virtocc Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Virtocc Incorporated
• Inventors: Winterbotham, Chloe Tyler
• Granted Patent: US 7,033,025 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 351/203
• CPC Class Codes: A61H 5/00 Exercisers for the eyes

Abstract

An interactive occlusion system, including software and hardware, for the treatment of amblyopia using virtual reality or other physically interactive or perceptually immersive three-dimensional or two-dimensional computer generated simulations, in which the patient'"'"'s occlusion compliance and usage time during occlusive and non-occlusive periods can be precisely recorded and the patient'"'"'s visual acuity can be accurately measured to be provided to the clinician, as well as the capacity for entering prescriptions and treatment plans for individual patients and restricting individual access to that patient'"'"'s prescription and treatment plan while allowing non-occlusive operation of the system after the prescribed occlusion time or for non-patient users.

Claims

1. An interactive occlusion system for treating amblyopia, comprising:

a treatment computer system;

graphics software capable of generating a graphical treatment environment;

a display medium for displaying the graphical treatment environment to a patient;

treatment software for performing treatment activities in the graphical treatment environment during a treatment session;

an occlusive device capable of selectively occluding the patient'"'"'s amblyopic and non-amblyopic eyes independently in response to signals controlled by the treatment software; and

measurement software for measuring the amount of time that the patient'"'"'s non-amblyopic eye is occluded during the treatment session.

2. The interactive occlusion system as claimed in claim 1, where the display medium comprises a virtual reality display system.

3. The interactive occlusion system as claimed in claim 1, where the display medium comprises a standard computer monitor.

4. The interactive occlusion system as claimed in claim 1, where the graphical treatment environment comprises a virtual reality computer simulation.

5. The system as claimed in claim 1, where the graphical treatment environment comprises a three-dimensional computer simulation.

6. The interactive occlusion system as claimed in claim 1, where the graphical treatment environment comprises a two-dimensional computer simulation.

7. The interactive occlusion system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

prescription software for entering a prescription for the patient that controls the treatment activities.

8. The interactive occlusion system as claimed in claim 7, where the display medium comprises a virtual reality system.

9. The interactive occlusion system as claimed in claim 7, where the display medium comprises a standard computer monitor.

10. The interactive occlusion system as claimed in claim 7, where the graphical treatment environment comprises a virtual reality computer simulation.

11. The interactive occlusion system as claimed in claim 7, where the graphical treatment environment comprises a three-dimensional computer simulation.

12. The interactive occlusion system as claimed in claim 7, where the graphical treatment environment comprises a two-dimensional computer simulation.

13. The interactive occlusion system as claimed in claim 7, where the prescription comprises the amount of time the non-amblyopic eye should be occluded during the treatment session.

14. The interactive occlusion system as claimed in claim 13, where the prescription further comprises:

the patient'"'"'s visual acuity level at which the treatment activities should be performed during the treatment session.

15. The interactive occlusion system as claimed in claim 14, further comprising:

a position tracking system for tracking the position of the patient'"'"'s eyes and the direction of the patient'"'"'s view; and

software for calculating the distance of the patient'"'"'s eyes from the display and adjusting the size of objects in the graphical treatment environment based on the patient'"'"'s visual acuity level and the distance of the patient'"'"'s eyes from the display.

16. The interactive occlusion system as claimed in claim 14, where the prescription further comprises:

the amount of time the amblyopic eye should be occluded during the treatment session.

17. The interactive occlusion system as claimed in claim 14, where the treatment software further comprises:

software for operating the system in non-occlusive mode after the patient has reached the prescribed amount of occlusion of the non-amblyopic eye.

18. The interactive occlusion system as claimed in claim 14, where the treatment software further comprises:

software for recording the results of the activities performed by the patient during the treatment session, where such results include the amount of time the patient'"'"'s non-amblyopic eye was occluded and the visual acuity level achieved by the patient during the treatment session.

19. The interactive occlusion system as claimed in claim 18, where the recorded results further comprise the amount of time the patient operated the treatment system without either eye being occluded.

20. The interactive occlusion system as claimed in claim 18, where the prescription software further comprises:

software for allowing a clinician to view the results of one or more treatment sessions and adjust the patient'"'"'s prescription based on the results.

21. The interactive occlusion system as claimed in claim 18, further comprising:

monitoring software for allowing the treatment system to monitor the results of the current treatment session and adjust the treatment activities in the current treatment session based on the results.

22. The interactive occlusion system as claimed in claim 18, where the prescription software further comprises:

software for reviewing the amount of time the patient operated the system with the non-amblyopic eye occluded in the last treatment session, comparing the amount of time with the prescribed amount of time and adjusting the patient'"'"'s prescription for the next treatment session based on the comparison.

23. The interactive occlusion system as claimed in claim 14, where the treatment system software further comprises:

image viewer software for displaying a sequence of objects to the patient at an apparent size and distance from the patient corresponding to a specified visual acuity level;

image generator software for selecting each object to be displayed in the sequence from a set of available objects and specifying the visual acuity level of the object to be displayed;

software for presenting the set of available objects to the patient and allowing the patient to attempt to identify the object being displayed from the set of available objects; and

software for recording the results of each identification attempt, including which of the patient'"'"'s eyes was occluded at the time of the identification attempt, the representative visual acuity level of the object, and the success or failure of the identification attempt.

24. The interactive occlusion system as claimed in claim 23, where the treatment software further comprises:

software for adjusting the visual acuity level of the next object to be displayed in the sequence of objects based on the success or failure of the patient'"'"'s previous identification attempts.

25. The interactive occlusion system as claimed in claim 23, where the treatment software further comprises navigation software for allowing the patient to change position in the virtual reality setting.

26. The interactive occlusion system as claimed in claim 23, where the image viewer software further comprises software for allowing the displayed object to change position in the treatment environment.

27. The interactive occlusion system as claimed in claim 23, further comprising:

a position tracking device for tracking the position of the patient'"'"'s eyes and the direction of the patient'"'"'s view; and

software for calculating the distance of the patient'"'"'s eyes from the display medium and adjusting the size of the displayed object to maintain the displayed object'"'"'s specified visual acuity level.

28. The interactive occlusion system as claimed in claim 7, further comprising:

authentication software for authenticating the identity of the patient and only allowing an authenticated patient to perform that patient'"'"'s prescribed treatment activities during a treatment session.

29. The interactive occlusion system as claimed in claim 28, where the treatment software further comprises software for recognizing whether a user of the treatment software is an authenticated patient and if the user is not authenticated, operating the treatment software without any occlusion.

30. The interactive occlusion system as claimed in claim 7, where the treatment software further comprises software for varying the number of objects displayed in the graphical treatment environment to test the patient'"'"'s response to crowding, where the number of objects displayed is controlled by the patient'"'"'s prescription.

31. The system as claimed in claim 7, where the graphics software further comprises:

software for controlling the contrast of the graphical treatment environment to test the patient'"'"'s contrast sensitivity based on the patient'"'"'s prescription.

32. A method for treating amblyopia using an interactive occlusion system, comprising the steps of:

entering a prescription for a patient for operating a treatment system for one or more treatment sessions;

the patient operating the treatment system during a treatment session by running a graphical treatment application;

selectively occluding the patient'"'"'s amblyopic and non-amblyopic eyes during the treatment session according to the prescription;

performing treatment activities in the treatment application during the treatment session while the patient'"'"'s non-amblyopic eye is occluded; and

measuring the amount of time the patient'"'"'s non-amblyopic eye is occluded during the treatment session.

33. The method of claim 32, where the graphical treatment application comprises a virtual reality computer simulation.

34. The method of claim 32, where the graphical treatment application comprises a three dimensional computer simulation.

35. The method of claim 32, where the graphical treatment application comprises a two dimensional computer simulation.

36. The method of claim 32, where the step of entering a prescription further comprises the steps of:

entering the amount of time that the patient'"'"'s non-amblyopic eye should be occluded; and

entering the patient'"'"'s visual acuity level.

37. The method of claim 32, where the treatment activities performed by the patient comprises the steps of:

displaying a sequence of objects to the patient to be identified, where each object in the sequence to be displayed comprises the further sub-steps of;

the treatment application selecting an object to be displayed from a set of available objects;

the treatment application displaying the object to the patient at an apparent size and distance appropriate to the patient'"'"'s visual acuity level;

the patient attempting to identifying the object being displayed from the set of available objects; and

the treatment system recording the results of the patient'"'"'s identification attempt, where the results comprise which eye was occluded during the identification attempt, the representative visual acuity level of the object, and the success or failure of the identification attempt.

38. The method of claim 32, further comprising the initial step of:

authenticating the patient'"'"'s identity before allowing the treatment system to operate in occlusive mode.

39. The method of claim 32, further comprising the steps of:

recording the results of the patient'"'"'s treatment activities during the treatment session, where the results are comprised of the amount of time that the patient operated the treatment system with the non-amblyopic eye occluded and the visual acuity level achieved by the patient.

40. The method of claim 32, further comprising the step of:

periodically occluding the patient'"'"'s amblyopic eye during the treatment session; and

measuring the amount of time the patient'"'"'s amblyopic eye is occluded during the treatment session.

41. The method of claim 32, further comprising the step of:

operating the treatment system in non-occlusive mode after the patient has completed the prescribed occlusion time.