Head-Mounted Digital Metamorphopsia Suppression as a Countermeasure for Macular-Related Visual Distortions for Prolonged Spaceflight Missions and Terrestrial Health

Authors

Joshua Ong
Nasif Zaman
Ethan Waisberg
Sharif Amit Kamran
Andrew G Lee
Alireza Tavakkoli

Publication Date

1-1-2022

Journal

Wearable Technologies

Abstract

During long-duration spaceflight, astronauts are exposed to various risks including spaceflight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome, which serves as a risk to astronaut vision and a potential physiological barrier to future spaceflight. When considering exploration missions that may expose astronauts to longer periods of microgravity, radiation exposure, and natural aging processes during spaceflight, more severe changes to functional vision may occur. The macula plays a critical role in central vision and disruptions to this key area in the eye may compromise functional vision and mission performance. In this article, we describe the development of a countermeasure technique to digitally suppress monocular central visual distortion with head-mounted display technology. We report early validation studies with this noninvasive countermeasure in individuals with simulated metamorphopsia. When worn by these individuals, this emerging wearable countermeasure technology has demonstrated a suppression of monocular visual distortion. We describe the considerations and further directions of this head-mounted technology for both astronauts and aging individuals on Earth.

Keywords

design, optimization, performance augmentation

DOI

10.1017/wtc.2022.21

PMID

38486901

PMCID

PMC10936292

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

10-12-2022

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Published Open-Access

yes