University news

Doctors working with NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde (NHS GGC) and the University of Glasgow have developed software which enables parents to see the world as their visually-impaired child does.

The software, called Sight-SimTM, can be used to help parents, teachers and health professionals adapt a child’s environment to make life easier for them.

The system works by using measurements of a child’s eyesight to create a simulated image on a computer screen presenting the world as it is seen through the child’s eyes.

The idea is the brainchild of Professor Gordon Dutton, a paediatric ophthalmologist at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children and was developed by NHS GGC clinical scientists Drs Ruth Hamilton and Michael Bradnam with Dr Paul Siebert, a computing scientist at the University of Glasgow.

Dr Hamilton, a clinical scientist and honorary research fellow at the University, said: “The world appears very different to children with poor vision and it can be difficult for them to negotiate their environment or to easily undertake activities such as reading.

“Sight-Sim helps parents and other carers make changes to a child’s environment and provide other tools, such as large-print books, to make their lives easier.”

Sight-Sim has already won a prestigious Medical Futures Innovation Award in the ophthalmology category.

Professor Dutton said:  “This can be life-changing for children because the beauty of this system is that it is tailored to each individual; this has never been done before.

“Eye care professionals spend a great deal of time and effort measuring vision and expressing it in numbers, and then send out letters to parents and teachers with information which they may not fully understand.

“Pictures are a very good tool for getting information across to people.

“This software, whether on a computer screen at home, in a doctor’s clinic or in the classroom, can simply reveal what the child actually sees after the adult has inputted the measurements contained in the letter.

“At school a visually-impaired child can take longer to complete exercises and homework and that leads to them staying behind to catch up. It’s not because they can’t do the work, it’s because the text and pictures need to be bigger, but not everyone recognises this.”

The development team is aiming to make the software available on the internet for everyone with visually-impaired children.

For more information visit www.sight-sim.com

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For more information contact Stuart Forsyth in the University of Glasgow Media Relations Office on 0141 330 4831 or email s.forsyth@admin.gla.ac.uk

First published: 24 December 2008