• Glaucoma is a leading cause of vision loss affecting about 80 million people worldwide^[1] and every year 3.6 million people lose their vision permanently due to the eye disease. It is also the leading cause of registered, permanent blindness in Hong Kong (23%)^[2].
• Caused by interocular pressure (IOP) on the optic nerve, glaucoma is painless and progresses slowly, however there are no preventative therapies to reverse glaucoma.
• Current therapeutic approaches to preserve failing vision involve reducing IOP, but are only available for diagnosed patients and may involve invasive surgery or daily doses of eyedrops that may have side effects

Comprising a corneal tissue compliance improvement (CTCI) system and multiple visible and IR spectrums to increase the temperature of the ocular tissue, the O_Oley boosts blood circulation and induces relaxing thermal stretching of the ocular tissue to strengthen its ability to withstand intra-ocular pressure. This reduces stress in the ocular tissues and decreases the risk of optic nerve damage caused by glaucoma.

Unlike other treatments for glaucoma for diagnosed patients, O_Oley is non-invasive and offers a comfortable warming therapeutic experience suitable for home use.

The Inventor O_Oley was designed by a team from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, comprising Kin Nam Kwok (leader), Kwun Chung Chan, Minji Seo and Yuen Yin Leung.

The HKUST team hopes their design can help reduce the global prevalence of glaucoma with an easy-to-use device that can be adjusted for different users' needs and is comfortable enough to keep using on a daily basis.

Winning the Hong Kong national leg of the James Dyson Award will inject £5,000 into the O_Oley project, enabling the team to patent their design and kickstart a startup so they can make O_Oley smaller, lighter, and more effective.

Kin Nam Kwok says: "Our passion and curiosity helped brainstorm and bring ideas together for this device. Inspired by hot yoga, our team decided to explore the same concept for healthy eyes. Further inspired by Dyson's bladeless fan, we implemented contactless inductive stretching, rather than full contact stretching like commercial ocular massagers."

Steve Yeung, Hong Kong judge: "While built-up eye pressure is the major risk factor of glaucoma, I am glad to see O_Oley present a wise approach that utilizes regulated negative pressure and IR irradiation to ease such conditions. Its goggle-format design is commendable because it makes this therapy possible at home and encourages patients to keep performing the treatment without strain. This is a promising solution and good news for all glaucoma patients."

The first engineering and clinical prototype of O_Oley took the form of swimming goggles with a flat crystal sheet at front that allowed the team to monitor ocular conditions under different stretching levels. By 3D scanning a face model the team could test and examine the fit of various goggle shapes. For the commercial prototype, they simplified the design, making it more comfortable and robust.

The O_Oley will progress to the international stage of the James Dyson Award and the O_Oley team aims to commercialise this product. The team wants to get user feedback to improve the interface and functionality and hopes to build personalized exercise protocols on top of the design based on the users' conditions and ocular health. The team also wants to develop a mobile app to make the customization process easier and more enjoyable for the users.

The International shortlist will be announced on 12^th October, and the International winners on 16^th November.

The Runners Up

PreDyctor^[4]

Problem: Dysgraphia is a learning disorder associated with impaired writing ability. People with dysgraphia have difficulty with writing legibly and quickly. Estimated to affect 10% of the global population, including James Dyson, diagnosis for Chinese speakers with dysgraphia involves lengthy assessments by psychologists.

Solution: PreDyctor is the world's first dysgraphia identifier for Chinese language handwriting. It offers a quick and low-cost pre-screening system that can assess Chinese characters and estimate the chance that the writer has dysgraphia. PreDyctor analyses handwriting using two independent models: a rule-based scoring model and a similarity-based comparison model. It then aggregates the outputs of the two models to estimate the probability that the user has dysgraphia. PreDyctor can identify Chinese-speaking children with dysgraphia for early intervention programs.

James Dyson Award

The James Dyson Award^[5] forms part of a wider commitment by Sir James Dyson, to demonstrate the power of engineers to change the world. The Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology^[6], the James Dyson Foundation^[7] and James Dyson Award^[8] encourage aspiring engineers, to apply their knowledge and discover new ways to improve lives through technology. To date, James Dyson has contributed over £140m to boundary-breaking concepts in education and other charitable causes. The James Dyson Award has supported over 300 inventions with prize money, and is run by the James Dyson Foundation, an engineering-education charity funded by Dyson profits.

Hashtag: #JamesDysonAward

References

1. ^{^} Media OutReach (www.media-outreach.com)
2. ^{^} James Dyson Award (www.jamesdysonaward.org)
3. ^{^} O_Oley (www.jamesdysonaward.org)
4. ^{^} PreDyctor (www.jamesdysonaward.org)
5. ^{^} James Dyson Award (eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com)
6. ^{^} Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology (eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com)
7. ^{^} James Dyson Foundation (eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com)
8. ^{^} James Dyson Award (eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com)