Next time you go to the eye doctor, the typical battery of vision exams may have a futuristic new look.
After beginning the commercial launch of its re:Vive gamified vision testing platform in August, Heru has already debuted an updated version of the technology. Re:Vive 2.0, which was unveiled this week, includes three new testing modalities, upping the number of diagnostic tests offered by the platform to six.
The first of the new modalities comprises color vision screening. It offers two separate tests, the Ishihara and the Farnsworth, for color blindness. Heru’s AutoFlow technology detects in real time whether a patient has failed the Ishihara test for red-green color deficiencies, and if so, proceeds to administer the Farnsworth test.
The other two new modalities test for contrast sensitivity and dark adaptation. The former can help detect subtle declines in vision quality, enabling optometrists to diagnose age-related macular degeneration, or AMD, much earlier. Dark adaptation—that is, the measure of how well the eyes adjust to sudden darkness—has also been shown to be an early indicator of AMD.
Those four tests offered by the trio of new diagnostic modalities join the pair of visual field tests already offered by the platform, which assess visual field defects using both suprathreshold and full threshold methods.
Additionally, Bob George, Heru’s chief technology officer, said in a statement that the company is already hard at work on its next slate of additional exams for the platform. Once they’re ready, Heru’s optometry clients will be able to automatically add them to their systems via the cloud.
All of the tests are administered through virtual and augmented reality headsets, eliminating the need for the traditional cadre of bulky eye testing machines. Heru’s platform is designed to be compatible with existing commercially available wearables, including AR and VR headsets from Microsoft and Magic Leap.
“Practices no longer need to purchase an expensive piece of bulky hardware that occupies a valuable pretest or exam lane, requires the time of a skilled technician and does not auto-upgrade when new features are released,” said Corey Nielson, chief customer officer of Heru. “This release underscores our commitment to serving our customers by working to improve practice efficiency and enhance patient care.”
The rollout of the re:Vive platform and debut of its next-gen update come shortly after Heru, a spinout of the University of Miami’s Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, scored $30 million in series A funding. That D1 Capital Partners-led round closed in May, and the company said at the time that its proceeds would be used to continue developing its diagnostic technology.