Development of a Smartphone-based Pupillometer

Abstract

In ophthalmology, a pupillometer, a device to measure the diameter of the pupil of the eye, can provide information on the function of the autonomic nervous system. The current pupillometers on the market are either too large to be a handheld instrument, or relatively expensive. In this study, a pupillometer based on a smartphone was designed. Both white and infrared LEDs and a 3M pixel camera of a smartphone were applied for the visual stimuli to an eye and for the acquisition of the eye images, respectively. Contrary to the existing method of pupil measurement that usually observe the variation of pupil diameter, the proposed algorithm in this study was applied to calculate the constriction ratio of the pupillary area in response to pupillary light reflex. The results showed that the constriction ratio of the pupillary area were all in the normal range (above 4.0) from the sixteen healthy participants. It is believed that the approach to pupil measurement used in this study is suitable for a mobile interface, and this system can be applied to clinical research, home-use healthcare, and distributed to some areas which suffer from problems like a lack of medical support.