ThermOcular AI, a new spinoff company from the University of Waterloo, has developed a novel thermal imaging system to measure the temperature of the cornea, among other capabilities.
Let’s begin with this company.
Officially incorporated as a company in January 2024, ThermOcular AI has spent the last 2 years working with Waterloo’s startup incubator (Velocity).
- Note: Velocity specializes in supporting student entrepreneurs and early-stage/pre-seed startups, in order to have funding access through the university’s Up Start program. The program is available for Waterloo students and recent graduates at Waterloo interested in technology commercialization.
And for ThermalOcular AI: The company is in the process of switching from its research-based focus to entrepreneurship, including product-market-fit, sales traction, and founder network support
- Its target: advancing the thermal imaging system (which we’ll get to in a moment).
Who’s leading the company?
ThermalOcular AI is headed up by CEO Ehsan Zare Bidaki, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at Waterloo, and Chief Scientific Officer Paul Murphy, OD, a professor at Waterloo’s School of Optometry & Vision Science.
Now the device.
The patented thermal imaging system features infrared (IR) and visible (VIS) cameras designed to capture synchronous thermal and VIS cameras from the eye surface, respectively.
The crux of it: This system not only measures (in detail) the cornea’s temperatures, but also potentially screens for ocular surface diseases such as dry eye.
How it does this: By providing fast, non-invasive imaging of the eye that’ll essentially indicate to an eyecare professional (ECP) if a patient’s ocular temperature patterns are indicative of dry eye.
What’s the process for this?
It’s pretty simple: The device records a short video of a patient’s eye to record how their ocular surface temperature (OST) changes over time using both the IR and VIS images.
- As a bonus: The system also uses an algorithm to segment and remove any variables from the recorded video files such as blinking and eye movements to track OST.
Depending on this OST pattern, an ECP can determine whether a patient is likely to have dry eye.
Go on …
Per Dr. Bidaki, the entire process “would be a quick screening test for patients, compared to other tests that might take an hour,” and benefit those who typically avoid DED treatment due to the high cost of specialized eye exams.
As for cost efficiency: This method is intended to be “much more affordable,” he stated.
Any clinical data on it?
Yes! Recent research published in IEEE Access examined the use of this system vs other instruments (which feature only one camera—IR or VIS—instead of both) in reporting cornea temperature profiles over a specific period of time.
- The study: Researchers captured 160 images from the eyes of 10 participants
- The set-up: The IR and VIS cameras were installed on a slit-lamp biomicroscope arm with a custom-designed camera mount to enable the cameras to be positioned side-by-side in front of a participant’s eye.
- The result: Video capturing of the eye surface was possible at various observation angles and heights.
See here for more details on this research.
And what’s the overarching significance?
With no commercial device currently available to measure and track temperature distribution across the ocular surface in a clinical setting, this system could prove to be a game-changer for ECPs in providing more rapid and accurate diagnoses for their OSD patients.