An assessment of a modern touch-screen tablet computer with reference to core physical characteristics necessary for clinical vision testing

Abstract

There are a multitude of applications using modern tablet computers for vision testing that are accessible to ophthalmology patients. While these may be of potential future benefit, they are often unsupported by scientific assessment. This report investigates the pertinent physical characteristics behind one of the most common highest specification tablet computers with regard to its capacity for vision testing. We demonstrate through plotting of a gamma curve that it is feasible to produce a precise programmable range of central luminance levels on the device, even with varying background luminance levels. It may not be possible to display very low levels of contrast, but carefully using the gamma curve information allows a reasonable range of contrast sensitivity to be tested. When the screen is first powered on, it may require up to 15 min for the luminance values to stabilize. Finally, luminance of objects varies towards the edge of the screen and when viewed at an angle. However, the resulting effective contrast of objects is less variable. Details of our assessments are important to developers, users and prescribers of tablet clinical vision tests. Without awareness of such findings, these tests may never reach satisfactory levels of clinical validity and reliability.