Vision-Based Diagnosis and Treatment

• US 20150257967A1
• Filed: 03/17/2014
• Published: 09/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: John Castle Simmons
• Original Assignee: John Castle Simmons
• Inventors: Simmons, John Castle
• Granted Patent: US 9,463,132 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/0025 characterised by electronic signal processing, e.g. eye models
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/0058 for multiple images
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/085 for testing strabismus
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/113 for determining or recording eye movement
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/145 by video means
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0036 including treatment, e.g., using an implantable medical device, ablating, ventilating
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/16 Devices for psychotechnics using teaching or educational appliances G09B1/00 - G09B7/00; Testing reaction times ; Devices for evaluating the psychological state
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/163 by tracking eye movement, gaze, or pupil change
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/168 Evaluating attention deficit, hyperactivity
• CPC Class Codes: A61H 2201/1604 Head
• CPC Class Codes: A61H 2201/165 Wearable interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: A61H 2201/5007 computer controlled
• CPC Class Codes: A61H 2201/5043 Displays
• CPC Class Codes: A61H 2201/5092 Optical sensor
• CPC Class Codes: A61H 5/005 Exercisers for training the stereoscopic view
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/30 relating to physical therapies or activities, e.g. physiotherapy, acupressure or exercising
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment

Abstract

Devices for recognizing and responding to Strabismus and Autism are provided herein. Eye-tracking and software analysis are used to identify adverse visual characteristics of both in real time and compelling visual feedback is used to stimulate correction as those events occur.

Claims

1. A device for measuring and improving the condition of a disease comprising:

a series of images to be displayed; and

a display device for displaying said series of images to a viewer; and

an image degrading element for degrading said image to be displayed;

an eye-tracking assembly for locating the point of interest (POI), that is, where said viewer is looking; and

significance data including, for at least some of said images to be displayed, at least one target location in the image and, for each target location a target value defined here as at least a numerical value associated with the importance of a viewer looking at that target location; and

a data source for providing said series of images and said significance data; and

a video controller operatively connected to said display device for providing a video signal to said display device; and

a processor, operatively connected to said image degrading element, said data source, said eye-tracking assembly, and said video controller for retrieving an image from said data source and, for each such retrieved image, directing said video controller to display said image, retrieving target location and target value data associated with said image from said data source, identifying from said eye-tracking assembly the POI and calculating the image POI, defined as the point in the image being observed by the viewer, calculating a score for each target location based at least on the target value and the proximity of the image POI to said target location, and, when the score exceeds a chosen threshold value indicative of an adverse behavior, directing the image degrading element to degrade the image with a magnitude responsive to said score until the adverse behavior subsides;

whereby viewers watching videos with some images known to cause viewers with a given condition to look at some areas while avoiding others will, when looking where they shouldn'"'"'t look, be discouraged from adverse behavior by at least a degraded view and be rewarded for resumption of a healthy behavior with a responsively improved image.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein:

the known visual characteristics of autism are used by experts in the field of autism, while reviewing said images to be displayed, to identify target locations known to have a significance and assign a target value to that location representative of how strongly a subject looking at that location should be associated with autistic behavior which is one source of said target location and target value data.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein:

in addition to target location and target value, a declining power function is used to calculate a score when a viewer'"'"'s image POI does not exactly match a target location datum thus describing one approach for calculating a score for each target location datum which will normally be higher the closer the image POI is to the target location.

4. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

optimization software for automatically and non-subjectively discovering the actual visual characteristics best associated with a disease and creating at least a set of target locations and associated target values which is a superior source of said target location and target value data;

wherein volunteers are stratified based on their severity level of a known disease and view videos as said processor monitors the eye-tracking assembly data, calculates the image POI, defined as the point in the instant image where the volunteer is looking, and, for each image, associates image POI'"'"'s and the strata of the volunteer, and, from tabulating at least this data, associates image locations in images with disease severity in those who tend to look there.

5. The device of claim 4, wherein

image POI'"'"'s for each image for all of the volunteers at each strata are tabulated revealing a potential plurality of density patterns for each image with each significant density pattern having a calculable center which becomes a target location and the density within an area surrounding that location drives the target value.

6. The device of claim 5, wherein

the tabulated density data is further used to calculate a declining power function descriptive of the declining density of the cluster as you move from the target location which will be applicable to calculating the score of claim 1 which is based at least on the target value and the proximity of the image POI to said target location.

7. The device of claim 1, further comprising;

optimization software for automatically and non-subjectively discovering the actual visual characteristics best associated with a disease and creating at least a set of target locations, associated target values, and declining power functions applicable to instantly recognizing and responding to an adverse behavior;

wherein

volunteers are stratified based on their severity level of a known disease and view videos as said processor monitors the eye-tracking assembly data, calculates the image POI and, for each image, associates image POI'"'"'s and the strata of the volunteer, which provides the data needed for a highly iterative tabulation to determine the ideal parameters by, for every image, iteratively considering every pixel in the image as a potential target location, and for each such potential target location iteratively considering at least a wide range of target values and declining density functions and then scoring, for each of these possible combinations, to find for each image which combination of target location, target value, and declining density function most reliably scored the volunteer data to the actual known condition of the volunteers thus providing software-optimized scoring values.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the magnitude of a score may be increased responsive to the length of the period in which a behavior is continued.

9. The device of claim 1 wherein said image degrading element is a software utility running on said processor causing a selected one of the group comprising 1) the image sent to said video controller to be degraded responsive to the magnitude of the score, 2) the image sent to said video controller to be improved responsive to the magnitude of a healthy said score, and 3) both 1 and 2.

10. The device of claim 1, wherein characteristics of image degradation include a selected one of the group comprising 1) defocus, 2) color deprivation, 3) dimming, 4) blanking, 5) localized defocus, 6) diplopia, 7) vignetting, 8) image shrinking, and 9) any combination of 1-8.

11. The device of claim 1, wherein said processor may also communicate both positive and negative reinforcements with a selected one of the group comprising 1) behavior-discouraging text, 2) behavior-rewarding text, 3) behavior-discouraging images, 4) behavior-rewarding images 5) corrective sounds, 6) rewarding sounds, 7) corrective audio messages, 8) rewarding audio messages, and 9) any combination of 1-8.

12. A device for diagnosing and treating a condition comprising:

a series of images to be displayed; and

a display device for displaying said series of images to a viewer; and

an image degrading element for degrading said image to be displayed;

an eye-tracking assembly for locating the POI; and

a data source for providing said series of images; and

a video controller operatively connected to said display device for providing a video signal to said display device; and

a processor, operatively connected to said data source, said eye-tracking assembly, said image degrading element, and said video controller for at least retrieving data from said eye-tracking assembly indicative of the instant distance between the viewer'"'"'s eyes and the point of the intersection of their visual axes and calculating the difference between that distance and the known distance from the viewer'"'"'s eyes to said display device, and, if the difference exceeds a threshold value, said processor directs said image degrading element to degrade the image responsive to the magnitude of said difference until that difference decreases;

whereby

viewers who have an eye drift away from the point on said display where their visual axes should be intersecting will quickly sense the cause-and-effect relationship between said drift and the inability to see the image but, as the eyes begin to return to their normal divergence, the image begins to improve responsively.

13. The device of claim 12 wherein said image degrading element is a software utility running on said processor causing the quality of the image sent to said video controller to be modified.

14. The device of claim 12 wherein characteristics of image degradation include a selected one of the group comprising 1) defocus, 2) color deprivation, 3) dimming, 4) blanking, 5) localized defocus, 6) diplopia, 7) vignetting, 8) image shrinking, and 9) any combination of 1-8.

15. The device of claim 12, wherein said processor directs positive behavior reinforcement stimuli responsive to smaller differences between the distance from the viewer'"'"'s eyes to the screen and the distance to the intersection of the visual axes of the eyes including a selected one of the group comprising 1) behavior-rewarding text on the display, 2) behavior-rewarding images on the display, 3) behavior rewarding sounds on a speaker, 4) behavior rewarding audio messages on the speaker, 5) and any combinations of 1-4.

16. The device of claim 12, wherein said processor directs negative behavior reinforcement stimuli responsive to larger differences between the distance from the viewer'"'"'s eyes to the screen and the distance to the intersection of the visual axes of the eyes including a selected one of the group comprising 1) corrective text on the display, 2) behavior-corrective images on the display, 3) behavior-corrective sounds on a speaker, 4) behavior-corrective audio messages on the speaker, and 5) any combinations of 1-4.

17. The device of claim 12 wherein:

the magnitude of a response to the viewer may be increased responsive to the length of the period in which a behavior is continued.

18. A method for identifying and responsively discouraging an adverse behavior comprising:

identifying, for at least some frames of a video, areas on each frame image that are known to attract the eyes of viewers suffering from a condition;

assigning for each of said areas a magnitude value that reflects the strength of that tendency to look at said area;

estimating for each of said areas a declining value function that presumes a smaller magnitude of the condition the further the viewer is looking from the effective center of said area;

displaying a frame to a viewer;

identifying with eye-tracking equipment where on the image the viewer is looking;

scoring for each said area on each frame, based said magnitude value and the declining value function based on the distance between where the viewer is looking and the center of said area;

comparing the score with a reasonable threshold value for adverse behavior;

degrading the visibility and enjoyability of the displayed image if the magnitude of the score exceeded the reasonable threshold value for adverse behavior making said degrading essentially proportional to the magnitude of the score in the adverse direction;

improving the visibility and enjoyability of the displayed image if the magnitude of the score did not exceed the reasonable threshold value for adverse behavior and making those improvements to the visibility proportional where possible to the magnitude of the score in the healthy behavior direction;

continuing above with displaying a frame to a viewer.

19. A method for identifying and responsively discouraging strabismic behavior comprising:

playing a video for viewer;

measuring the distance from the viewer'"'"'s eyes to the intersection of their vision axes;

calculating the difference between that measured distance and the actual distance between the viewer'"'"'s eyes and the display;

degrading the visibility of the displayed image if the magnitude of said difference exceeded a reasonable threshold value and making the degradation of that image essentially proportional to the magnitude of that difference;

improving the visibility of the displayed image if the magnitude of said difference is below said reasonable threshold value and making the improvement of that image essentially proportional to improvements in that difference where that is possible;

continue above with measuring the distance from the viewer'"'"'s eyes to the intersection of a vision axes.