A Visual Field Enhancement Device (VFED) will successfully rehabilitate the many persons with peripheral field defects such as homonymous hemianopia and constricted fields by being optically clear, cosmetic, sturdy, and inexpensive. The VFED will be molded as part of a spectacle lens and is a single-piece two-mirror system. This unit has no image reversal, is placed on the non-seeing side, and has great optical quality at the necessary deviation angles to bring the peripheral blind area more straIght ahead to be useful for visual tasks. No current prism or mirror optical system is very successful or widely used. Prism systems have restricted angles of deviation with poor acuity at the higher powers. Current mirror systems reverse the image and place the unit in the seeing field where it obstructs the field of view. The VFED unit will be further designed, developed, and then molded in Phase l. These prototype units will then be clinically tested on 24 patients and compared to Fresnel prisms. The VFED will show that it tremendously improves rehabilitation, mobility, and the awareness of the world for persons with peripheral field defects.
The commercial potential is large because there are currently no acceptable optical solutions to rehabilitate the hundreds of thousands of Americans with homonymous hemianopia and constricted fields. The VFED unit will be molded as a spectacle lens and is estimated to no more than a special bifocal lens.
