Examining eye-movements made during activities of daily living for screening and rehabilitations of functional vision

In September 2021 I moved to London to join the CrabbLab at City, University of London in the United Kingdom. Here, I will conduct research under the supervision of Dr. Pete Jones and Prof. David Crabb. 

Personal Background and Interest:

I have a broad and diverse background, starting with my Bachelor of Science where I majored in Physics and Cognitive Neuroscience with a minor in Law at University College Roosevelt in Middelburg, The Netherlands. Afterwards, I did a pre-master in Artificial Intelligence, followed by a Master of Science in Human Machine Communication at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands.

Aim of the project:

The aims of my project are to 1) evaluate the possibility of using eye tracking while watching TV to determine if the viewer has visual field loss by examining their eye movements, 2) use augmented reality and virtual reality to determine how people perform everyday tasks with visual field loss, 3) test devices made to monitor vision at home for robustness by testing it under various conditions in a home-like environment, and; 4) examine the possibility of visual field improvement in glaucoma patients that just started treatment.

Current activities:

To date, towards aim 4) I have examined the possibility of visual field improvement in glaucoma patients that just started treatment. To test this theory a re-analysis of the data of the United Kingdom Glaucoma Treatment Study (UKGTS) dataset where 516 people took part in a randomized controlled trial on glaucoma treatment. I compared the data prior to the start of the trial (before starting medication or treatment) to the data after just starting the trial. Towards aim 3) I tested vision home monitoring devices under varying conditions in a home-like environment using normally sighted individuals. This is important since there is currently a large interest in home-monitoring for eye diseases but these tests are often tested in clinical conditions, but these devices need to be resilient to the varying conditions in peoples homes. Furthermore, and towards aim 1), I have started evaluating the potential of eye-movements, recorded while watching TV, in the screening for visual field defects. 

Future directions:

In the future, I hope to use virtual and augmented reality to determine how people with visual field loss perform everyday tasks.