ELECTROCHROMIC FAST DARKENING SUNWEAR FOR PEOPLE ARMD

适合手臂的电致变色快速变光太阳镜

• 批准号: 6384739
• 负责人: PRASANNA CHANDRASEKHAR
• 金额: $ 37.46万
• 依托单位: ASHWIN-USHAS CORPORATION, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 1998
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1998-06-01 至 2003-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6384739
• 关键词: biomedical equipment development; clinical research; human subject; macular degeneration; photobiology; photoconduction; photoprotective agent; polymers; vision aid

This project seeks to further develop and test to a level of consumer-ready prototypes a new, Conducting Polymer (CP) based electrochromic (EC) technology for persons with Age-Related Macular Degeneration (ARMD) as well as other age-related ocular diseases. It is based on our prior work at the Atlanta Veterans Administration Rehabilitation R&D Center with EC sunglasses tested on ARMD subjects, and on new, CP EC technology originally developed at this firm for office/auto windows. In the prior work, it was shown that the functional vision and mobility performance of people with ARMD significantly improves with EC sunglasses. In the Phase I work, excellent EC lens performance was demonstrated: 3% to 83% light/dark contrast; 1 to 3 sec switching time; thin (l.t. 3 mm), flexible (plastic), solid-state construction, cyclability g.t. 5,000 cycles. A sophisticated Controller (hardware/software) for ambient-light dependent control of sunglasses was demonstrated. Subject testing on 9 ARMD patients showed a real performance difference in simulated outdoor environment. In the present project, the EC performance of the lenses will be further refined, 100 EC glasses with a more sophisticated hearing-aid- sized Controller fabricated, and patient testing on 25 (Year 1) and 100 (Year 2) patients demonstrated. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: Prior research has shown that such fast-darkening sunwear would also appeal to the general, normal-sighted populace, in addition to the 2 M people with ARMD and more than 1 M with other age-related ocular problems in the US. Thus, if as expected the EC sunglasses are producible for l.t. US $250, they would command a large market.

该项目旨在进一步开发和测试消费者就绪原型水平，一种基于导电聚合物 (CP) 的新型电致变色 (EC) 技术，用于治疗年龄相关性黄斑变性 (ARMD) 以及其他与年龄相关的眼部疾病。它基于我们之前在亚特兰大退伍军人管理局康复研发中心的工作，其中 EC 太阳镜在 ARMD 受试者上进行了测试，并且基于该公司最初为办公室/汽车窗户开发的新 CP EC 技术。之前的研究表明，使用 EC 太阳镜可显着改善 ARMD 患者的功能性视力和行动能力。在第一阶段的工作中，展示了出色的EC镜头性能：3％至83％的明/暗对比度； 1至3秒切换时间；薄（l.t. 3 毫米）、柔性（塑料）、固态结构、可循环性 g.t. 5,000 次循环。演示了一种复杂的控制器（硬件/软件），用于根据环境光控制太阳镜。对 9 名 ARMD 患者进行的受试者测试显示，在模拟户外环境中，其表现确实存在差异。在本项目中，镜片的 EC 性能将进一步完善，制造了 100 副 EC 眼镜，配有更复杂的助听器大小的控制器，并对 25 名（第一年）和 100 名（第二年）患者进行了患者测试。拟议的商业应用：先前的研究表明，除了美国 200 万患有 ARMD 的人和超过 100 万患有其他与年龄相关的眼部问题的人之外，这种快速变黑的太阳镜也会吸引普通视力正常的人群。 。因此，如果正如预期的那样，EC 太阳镜可以为 l.t. 生产。 250美元，他们将占据很大的市场。