Visual field testing is one of the key clinical methods for diagnosing and monitoring eye diseases such as glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration. It involves the presentation of small white lights at different places within a person’s visual field and that person pressing a button when they see the lights. Using this method, we can map out areas of normal and damaged vision outside the very centre of a person’s visual field. While it has been an important test for nearly a century, current automated methods have changed little since the early 1990s. In recent years, improved hardware has opened the opportunity for innovation in approaches to visual field testing.
Using mathematical and computational techniques we have devised several new approaches to visual field testing, culminating in the ARREST procedure, which we are currently testing at the Lions Eye Institute in a longitudinal study. Our computer simulations of ARREST indicate that it will provide much better information about a person’s visual field, without increasing test times over current methods.
Our group also maintains two Open Source tools for facilitating research in this and related areas: The Open Perimtry Interface (OPI) and Psypad.
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