Researchers at the Technion Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering have developed a device that can diagnose neurological disease by tracking eyelid motion. The eyelid motion monitor technology (EMM) was tested on 100 healthy subjects to collect a base line of blinking patterns. This was then used to diagnose individuals with blepharospasm dystonia, a disease characterised by involuntary contraction of the muscles responsible for closing the eyes.

The hope is that this technology will be used in regular eye tests to diagnose all diseases that a expressed neurologically. The researchers are testing the technology in the diagnosis of dementia and Parkinson’s and hope to develop to cover Thyroid eye disease, Ptosis and other cranial nerve palsy.

What Do Your Eyes Say? Device Can Diagnose Diseases Based on Eyelid Motion

HAIFA, ISRAEL (October 15, 2017) – Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering have developed a device that can diagnose diseases by means of an eyelid motion monitor (EMM). The project was published recently in Graefe’s Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology.

Already in its developmental stages, the device has won several international awards, and was ranked in the top 20 in the Texas Instruments Innovation Challenge (TIIC) – Europe Design Contest. Over the past two years, the device has been used in clinical trials at Haemek Medical Center in Afula, Israel.

The device was first developed by Technion Prof. Levi Schachter and doctoral student Adi Hanuka, who began working on it as an undergraduate. Hanuka continued working on it during her graduate studies, with the help of a team of students working under her supervision.

“Eyelid motion provides us with meaningful information about the health of a patient,” explained Hanuka. “This motion can indicate not only eye diseases, but also neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s, and autoimmune diseases such as Grave’s. We developed a device that can be installed on the standard refraction glasses used in eye tests, at the request of Dr. Daniel Briscoe, Chairman of the Haemek Medical Center Department of Ophthalmology.”

Glasses are fitted with a hardware and software system that monitors and interprets eyelid movements. With approval of the Ethics Committee Regulations for Research Work Involving Human Participants, measurements of approximately 100 subjects have been collected in order to define the eyelid motion patterns (blinking speed and frequency) of a healthy person. Eyelid motions were analyzed using a signal-processing algorithm written by students Tal Berkowitz, Michal Spector, Shir Laufer, and Naama Pearl.

The team first examined blepharospasm dystonia, a disease characterized by involuntary contraction of the muscles responsible for closing the eyes. The researchers found a statistically significant quantitative relationship between a person’s eyelid pattern and the disease, which means that the device could be used to diagnose it. The system was also used to examine the effect of Botox injections, the conventional treatment for the disease, and it was found that within 15 minutes contractions decrease and the blinking pattern begins to match indices that exist among healthy people.

The researchers are also gathering information about other groups, including patients with dementia and Parkinson’s disease.

“Along with designing the product for purposes of commercialization, we are working in several directions: developing the device as a platform for multidisciplinary research on various topics such as the effect of emotions on blinking patterns; eyelid communication amongst the paralyzed; and automatic diagnosis through machine learning and based on a computerized comparison between the specific monitoring and an extensive database,” said Hanuka.

According to the researchers, the device has the potential to diagnose every disease that is expressed neurologically, including many ocular and systemic such as Ptosis, Thyroid eye disease, Parkinson’s disease, Myasthenia Gravis, and neurologic diseases such as third and seventh cranial nerve palsy.

Graph (CORR): Blinking speed as a function of the amplitude of motion. Green – a patient with blepharospasm dystonia blinking at very high speed.

Last month Prof. Boaz Golany, Technion’s Vice President for External Relations and Resource Development opened the Technion-Poalim Data Science Center (TPADS). The new centre aims to harness the data provided by Bank Hapoalim with researchers at Technion to develop the banking technologies of the future.
Banking and financial technology is a rapidly developing sector and Technion is forming a unique partnership to allow collaborative development of theories and data analysis tools that will directly improve banking services and technology.

Technology in the Service of the Future of Banking

Technion and Bank Hapoalim inaugurate TPADS, a joint research center

“This is a definitive and optimistic occasion, in which a major bank partners with a leading technological university to connect the world of economics with the digital domain,” said Prof. Boaz Golany, Technion’s Vice President for External Relations and Resource Development, at the inauguration of the Technion-Poalim Data Science center (TPADS).

The new Center was established by Bank Hapoalim and Technion’s Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, with the aim of harnessing new technologies for the development of the bank of the future. Researchers from Technion and bank analysts collaborate to address the major challenges of the technological-banking world. According to Prof. Golany, “This pairing between Bank Hapoalim and Technion may be strange at first glance, but it is based on the innovation that characterizes both partners. The digital revolution changes perceptions that we have become accustomed to and will cause banks to look completely different within a decade. Academia, like the financial world, must adapt itself to the digital revolution.”

The cooperation between Bank Hapoalim and Technion is carried out by the bank’s innovation division, and as part of a joint initiative with the Technion’s Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management led by the Dean of the Faculty, Prof. Avishai Mandelbaum.

Avi Kochva, Deputy CEO of Bank Hapoalim and the Head of the Innovation Division, said at the ceremony, “A year ago we announced this collaboration and I am pleased that we have reached this festive day of inauguration. The bank of the future is a proactive one, committed to understanding customers’ needs and adapting to them. A key part of this is the development of information and data analysis, and therefore we partnered with Technion – to strengthen these capabilities of ours.”

“This is an innovative project based on intra-organizational entrepreneurship and creativity on both sides,” said Prof. Mandelbaum. “This is a partnership between equals – the bank provides data and full partnership in analysis and Technion develops advanced theories and related data analysis tools, so as to apply to the bank’s data. Progress made in the past year has been significant, and we continue along the delineated path to benefit from the fruits of our joint research.”

The Center is led by Profs. Avigdor Gal and Oren Kurland of the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management at Technion, together with Noam Zeigerson, Director of Information and Analysis at Bank Hapoalim’s innovation division.

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