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Anyone that has fallen in love may have used the old metaphor " I looked into their eyes and saw stars". Now Opticians could almost expect to say they could " see stars" when carrying out an eye examination to detect Age-Related Macular Degeneration.
A new specialist camera has been combined with new software and light technology from engineers at the UK Astronomy Technology Centre to create a piece of equipment called a Retinal Densitometer which will be able to measure how our eyes respond to light sources which is crucial in detecting the early onset of Age Related Macular Degeneration.
The centre are usually involved with research and mechanics to make instruments to look into deep space and monitor the extremely faint lights omitted from stars and far away galaxies. You can see where the correlation has been made to come up with the Densitometer.
The new piece of kit is currently being used in tests by scientists in Wales with patients being treated at the University of Cardiff's School of Optometry and Vision Sciences.
The Minister for Universities and Science has said how promising this type pf collaboration can be when researchers and scientists working across different disciplines invent and develop brand new solutions for differing problematic issues including healthcare.