Suffers of Seasonal Affective Disorder respond quickly to light therapy in the fall and winter. Their treatment is usually confined to the home since light boxes are stationary and head-mounted devices limit visibility. The long-term goal of this new technology is to free those seeking to alleviate their symptoms from such confinement. This will be accomplished by development of a close-to-the-eye fiber optic controlled light delivery system that will adjust the retinal coverage to maximize visual acuity. The first hurdle is to provide a broad-band white light source that matches the therapeutic response of the subject by providing an adjustable spectra. This is possible because of dramatic advances in embedding fiber optics, and efficiencies of new shorter wavelength LEDs and sensors. This device, the Interactive Light Field (ILF), will not add any additional magnetic ELF to the brain area as do visor-like devices. The experiment will have 20 subjects, with a very low intensity ILF as a placebo. This will be done for three weeks, using the HDRS and interviews, along with personal sleep logs. The subjects will be screened according to the DSM-IV criteria. If this yields a low response to the placebo, we may begin to understand the part played by magnetic fields.
Addition to the SAD market, there is enormous commercial potential for variations of this system. The Interactive Field will be able to help treat sleep disorders, and would be beneficial in circadian-related applications as well as monitoring. This will be accomplished while maintaining visual acuity, alertness, and the ability to operate . It would have military applications for stand-by duty and rapid deployment of troops across time zones.
