Look Here: Phone App Checks Photos For Eye Disease
Examples of what the iPhone app looks for: The white reflection from an otherwise dark pupil can indicate a tumor, a cataract or other eye problems. Claire Eggers/NPR hide caption
Examples of what the iPhone app looks for: The white reflection from an otherwise dark pupil can indicate a tumor, a cataract or other eye problems.
There's now free software for your iPhone that lets you check for early signs of certain eye diseases.
The idea for the app comes from a Baylor University chemist named Bryan Shaw. We introduced you to Shaw late last year.
Shaw's son Noah was born with a rare form of eye cancer known as retinoblastoma. Shaw saw signs of his son's cancer when the baby was just 12 days old; there was a white reflection coming from Noah's eyes in flash pictures taken with the family's digital camera. The flash was reflecting off tumors at the back of Noah's eyes.
Trouble is, Shaw didn't learn the significance of that white reflection until doctors diagnosed Noah's condition months later.
"If I would have had some software telling me, 'Hey, go get this checked out,' that would have sped up my son's diagnosis and the tumors would have been just a little bit smaller when we got to them," says Shaw. "There might have been fewer." And maybe doctors wouldn't have had to remove Noah's right eye to prevent the cancer from spreading.
Since the software didn't exist, Shaw worked with Baylor computer scientist Greg Hamerly to create some. Hamerly and several grad students wrote a program that uses what's called machine learning to spot a white reflection in photos.
"Machine learning is about training the computer to do things by example," Hamerly explains. (White reflections from the eye's pupil, called leukocoria, can also be indicative of a cataract, an infection or other disorder.)
Think about places that have no doctor. It's no substitute for a doctor, but is it better than nothing? Well, yes.
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Look Here: Phone App Checks Photos For Eye Disease