A Child-Friendly Wearable Device for Quantifying Environmental Risk Factors for Myopia

In the past few decades, the prevalence of myopia, where the eye grows too long, has increased dramatically. The visual environment appears to be critical to regulating the eye growth. Thus, it is very important to determine the properties of the environment that put children at risk for myopia. Researchers have suggested that the intensity of illumination and range of distances to which a child's eyes are exposed are important, but this has not been confirmed.

We designed, built, and tested an inexpensive, child-friendly, head-mounted device that can measure the intensity and spectral content of illumination approaching the eyes and can also measure the distances to which the central visual field of the eyes are exposed. The device is mounted on a child's bicycle helmet. It includes a camera that measures distances over a substantial range and a six-channel spectral sensor. The sensors are hosted by a light-weight, battery-powered microcomputer. We acquired pilot data from children while they were engaged in various indoor and outdoor activities.

The device proved to be comfortable, easy, and safe to wear, and able to collect very useful data on the statistics of illumination and distances.

The designed device is an ideal tool to be used in a population of young children, some of whom will later develop myopia and some of whom will not.

Such data would be critical for determining the properties of the visual environment that put children at risk for becoming myopic.