Where is your left wing mirror? Jeannette will tell you...

Surprisingly, we were unable to find information on where in the visual field important car landmarks are, for example the rear and side mirrors. This is a poster of a student project (in progress) conducted by Optometry students at Plymouth University. It was shown at the BCOVS'17 meeting (4-5 September '17). There are people who say that far peripheral visual fields aren't important for driving. They are probably wrong...

Standing on the shoulders of giants...

More than anyone else in recent history David Henson has contributed to make high-quality routine perimetry an integral part of primary eye care - through the Henson range of instruments, an excellent textbook, and a great deal of research work. Our group at Plymouth University are getting ready to start with a validation study of the Henson 9000 perimeter (centre-stage, with Amara Khan, summer research intern, and Emmanouil "Manos" Tsamis of Manchester University). Particularly exciting: we will explore some important human-factors properties of perimetry that have not been studied much in the past. Good perimetry is as clever as Yanis Varoufakis and as friendly as Jeremy Corbyn.

TRUMPerimetry beyond 90 degrees: vision in the extreme right wing

Recent events at the FBI have distracted media attention from Mike Simpson's Special Interest Group on peripheral visual fields at ARVO. Here's a link to our PhD student Catherine Bain's work on measuring the extreme temporal / temporal-inferior visual field periphery using a modified Octopus 900 perimeter. To our knowledge, this hasn't been attempted since Roenne (1915). Some patients complain of shadows or reflections in this area, after intra-ocular lens implantation (dysphotopsia). This technique may allow us to measure contrast sensitivity beyond 90 degrees from fixation. Exciting times!

The Plymouth Perimetry Tool

Stimulus size VII and up to 300 dB. Specific to magno, parvo, and konio pathways. Order online: stock is running out fast, and the Euro is rising. Beware of inferior imitations!

Making perimetry great again...

The Open Perimetry Interface transforms the Octopus 900 instrument into the Terrific Revolutionary Universal Mega Perimeter. A fine-tuned machine for visual field research. Unpresidented! 

OPI opts out of Brexit

Today Dr Ivan Marin Franch got the OPI running in Plymouth. From now, two Octopus 900 perimeters will do some heavy lifting. Lyne's text on visual fields: you can't put it down...

New PhD studentships at Plymouth University

Two fully-funded PhD studentships are being advertised at Plymouth University for work related to visual fields. One studentship (funded by the College of Optometrists, UK) focuses on the mid- and far-peripheral visual field, while the other (funded by Fight for Sight, UK), aims to improve visual field tests for patients with advanced damage. Apply!!

Fankhauser and Enoch, 1962 (free at last :-)

Here is a classic paper in perimetry, 53 years old - and a beautiful collection of references at the end. Enjoy!

Prof Dr Bernard Becker 1920 - 2013

Bernard ("Bernie") Becker passed away on August 28, 2013. His 1982 article on "The Onset and Evolution of Glaucomatous Visual Field Defects" (WM Hart and B Becker, Ophthalmology 1982) is superb reading for anyone interested in glaucoma and visual fields, whether silly or serious. The article is hard to find - here is another copy. You may also be interested in a transcript of a 1990 interview with Dr Becker on his personal history in ophthalmology, from the Bernard Becker Medical Library at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

New Perimetry at ARVO '13 in Seattle

Today, Vera Mönter's poster on "Reclaiming the Periphery" will be shown at ARVO in Seattle. Amazingly, we find unexpectedly steep frequency-of-seeing curves in the periphery. This challenges the old assumption that "peripheral visual fields are just too variable...". Please stop by poster #3916.

Meeting of the Open Perimetry Initiative at ARVO '13

We have previously alerted to the subversive activity of the Open Perimetry Initiative who has been on the watch list of our Ministry for a little while (see the post of 17 Nov '12). It now turns out that they will be meeting at the ARVO convention on Sunday 5 May, 1:00 - 2:30 PM, Convention Center room LL3. We believe that this is a serious violation of the perimetric spirit. Perimeters cannot be open - they MUST be closed at least on one end, and ideally ring-fenced all the way around with a fierce and fiery firewall. DO NOT TOUCH THE DATA.

Reading HFA data...

There are people in this world who type threshold estimates from HFA print-outs into spreadsheets. We love them, we admire them, and we'll weep at the news that yet another one has died from lack of food, lack of light, lack of love, or from repetitive strain injury. But we Canadians have found a solution to this problem: A special "Low Force Tactile Numeric Keypad (LFTNK)" made by ErgoCanada.

But seriously: Don't do it! Say No! Stop!! (save the data you got, but STOP doing this by hand. Now!). Seriously, there are much better ways of doing this...More later...

Visual Field Primers

We have now uploaded on Academia the early English and German versions of the "Humphrey Visual Field Primer". These little books are really well written and beautifully illustrated - real gems. In contrast to some of the later editions of the "Primer", the early ones are strong on basic principles and fundamentals. Thanks to Leander Böhme for digitising these.

Für den deutschsprachigen Raum brauchen wir gute Literatur. Thieme, Springer, where art thou? Der Schlaf der Vernunft bringt die Ungeheuer hervor...(und umgekehrt, wenn es nur nicht so lustig wäre).

Sans Mots II

Gesichtsfeldlied

Sans Mots

Useful visual field stuff on Scribd...

My scribd site has manuals for the Goldmann and Humphrey Perimeters, and some other stuff. Have a look, and IT'S FREE!

Reinventing the wheel...

Here is a technical drawing of the reinvented aperture wheel of the Octopus 900 research instruments. The apertures were designed in the Goldenpass scenic train from Montreux to Lucern while being distracted by cows with shiny bells and very clean bottoms. Some of the apertures are big enough to accommodate even the most discerning customers...

Andrew Turpin is using ugly fonts...

Andrew Turpin and colleagues at the University of Melbourne have implemented the Open Perimetry Interface for the Octopus 900, a beautiful instrument that will now be heavily misused for boring "scientific" experiments rather than Cash for Too Few Questions (CTFQ, otherwise known as TOP). Here is an example of what these people are up to... Simply abominable. The Ministry of Silly Fields will be consulting with its lawyers to consider legal action against this group.

Hall of Shame #1: The Hill of Vision is No Everest...