NOVEL DEVICE TO BE DEVELOPED AT KOÇ UNIVERSITY TO SIMULATE HOW WE WILL SEE AFTER SURGERY
April 19th, 2022 • Elif Yilmaz, Koc University
Koç University professors Hakan Ürey and Afsun Şahin have been awarded 2 million euros from a European Innovation Council (EIC) Transition grant to develop a holographic vision test device for use before cataract surgery. The device is important for cataract patients and persons over 50 without cataracts who do not use glasses. The device allows patients to experience how they will see after surgery or help find the right lenses.
Koç University's Hakan Ürey and Afsun Şahin have been awarded 2 million euros from a European Innovation Council (EIC) Transition grant to develop a device that simulates a patient's vision with different lenses or visual impairments they might experience after surgery. Ürey is a professor in Koç University's Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering and Şahin is a professor in Koç University's School of Medicine Department of Ophthalmology.
The EIC provides transition grants to researchers with EIC Pathfinder or European Research Council (ERC) Proof of Concept projects, to support commercialization and deliver inventions to users.
In a world-first, Ürey and Şahin's device will use holographic images to make it possible to see in three dimensions with only one eye. In addition, patients with cataracts will experience a clear image despite the ailment's "frosted glass". Clinical studies for the project will be carried out in Turkey, Germany, and Italy.
The holographic vision device is of particular importance for cataract patients and persons over 50 without cataracts who do not use glasses. Thanks to the device, patients will experience in advance how their vision will change after surgery or with glasses, helping them decide whether to have surgery or which lens to choose.
Koç University is Home to One of Two EIC Projects in Turkey
The grant is the first EIC grant for Koç University as part of the EU's Horizon Europe, the successor to the Horizon 2020 program. Researchers at Koç University's College of Engineering and School of Medicine are highly qualified, and the University is home to a fully equipped Research Hospital, making it among the country's leading institutions for projects that shape the future.
The new funding will be financed through the EIC's Transition program, which helps research teams "research or develop a ground-breaking technology". In 2013, Ürey's project, "New Imaging and Tracking Technologies for Augmented Reality and 3D Applications", became Turkey's first ERC-funded engineering project, with a 2.5-million-euro grant. Ürey was subsequently awarded three ERC Proof of Concept grants. In the project's final phase, Ürey began working with Şahin to develop the project's eye-tracking system and software, and to begin its clinical studies.
Ürey and Şahin's new project is only the second to receive an EIC grant in Turkey. "Development of a Holographic Vision Test Device for Use Before Cataract Surgery" will be supported for three years and will be conducted in partnership with Koç University and CY Vision A.Ş. in Turkey, Friedrich-Alexander University in Germany, and the San Raffaele University Hospital in Italy. Clinical trials will be conducted with cataract patients in three hospitals.
Provided by Koc University