i have been wondering this for years..i always have this problem, like all people due to lighting or my emotional reactions my well eye's pupil dilates or shrinks but of course my shell iris always stays the same size..and people, oh those curious people , always comment on it. i often get comments like: OH MY GOD!! there's smt wrong with your eye! (-duh!) or why are they different in size? etc...so that made me wonder, is it really hard to make a prosthesis which is sensitive to light? has anyone asked their ocularists?
sorry if i sound stupid, i m just thinking loud

Honestly,
Do that many people really notice something like that? I would think your pupils would be a similar size in about 80% of situations and for the rest of the situations I would think that it would either be too dark or bright to really notice.

Anyway, I've often pondered this myself so your question isn't off the wall or stupid and has probably crossed the minds of lots of people. A reactive pupil would certainly go a long way in making the prosthesis more life like. I am sure the technology is there already to do somehting like this but may be too costly too research. The biggest obstacle would be finding space for the electronics (if that is how it is done) and powering it ( although a solar cell might work well). Not to mention the entire process of creating a prosthesis would most likely change - not a comforting thought to many occularists who have exacted their skill and make a living with it.

I think the main reason advances like this haven't been made is that occularists are more art than they are science. I often wonder how science will advance and if someday we will have realistic bionic eyes that do everything but see (maybe even see) or whether a biological approach is taken and they are able to clone eyes and re-plant them in place of the missing eye. Stem cells are the first step in the latter example and more money would help out in the prior (as I believe the technology is there to make a more life like prosthesis).

I know that there are several ocularists working on this but its not yet perfected. So, hopefully its on down the road for us that wear prosthetics.

Trudy

Hi Crystal, my ocularist tells me people have been working on that for years. I suspect its the kind of research that doesn't attract large companies or big $ (yes, I'm cynical). Maybe they should make reusable pupil stickers in different sizes! Oh well, some day..
-Amy

PS Dear Guest,
Mismatched pupils can be pretty obvious if you have light blue eye like mine. I'm sure darker eyes might make it less an issue.

Guest, Amy is right mis matched pupils ARE obvious, and are often the giveaway for folk like us.


I think the reacting pupil would be really cool, but wouldnt it be a bit dear? (No chance of one on the NHS! lol)

I wonder how it would work tho? Would it be like a mini solar panel thingy? I remember a few friends at school who were thinking of projects to do for Technology and Design (and some of them came up with craic'in ideas, some of which worked brilliantly) And I wish I had of thought of that to tell them! (not that I could have made it cuz I was rather poor at anything arty! lol)

Thats the kind of thing that Tech and Design teachers would LOVE to try and create.

Well it's been patented but that's as far as it's got I think.

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4332039.html

I just want a laser pointer, and a minicamera that I can link to the internet.

LOL. Jay- me too.

I've had friends come up with crazy ideas for my eye. One being the camera, another being a virtual eye somehow connectd to my brain so I can "see" (uh, my vision is fine in one eye, guys lol) or an actual eye transplant :S

I think the pupil thing would be a good idea but even for myself, I have a problem with the iris itself.

I have blue eye(s) and it's always changing. Sometimes it matches my prosthetic but it's usually either darker or lighter or clearer or greyer shades of blues.

Because as the pupil dialates to let in light, it changes the appearnce of the iris itself.

I actually found an interesting article on eye colour.
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/no ... .Ge.r.html

Before my eye was enucleated, the pupil was not reacting to light for quite a long time. It was dilated all the time so it really did not match with the other eye. No one ever asked any questions ever, however I noticed reactions on many peoples' faces that they were wondering why.

I think it is a responsibility of the ocularist to match the pupil size of the prosthesis to that of the good eye has in a normal light. We all have different size of the pupil, I think it has to do on the vitamin intake/ general health. Many people have large pupils, I have small (in daylight) and my night vision has always been very good, also as monocular.

I do not think it is realistic to develop a reactive pupil for a fake eye, why not develop then a seeing fake eye. Actually this has been done already, there is an invention that senses the light, processes it and then sends the information to the brain using radiowaves, so even the optic nerve is by-passed. However this invention requires a new type of prosthesis that allows the light through to the back of the eye. I think that can be developed too. I am sorry but I do not have the website to give to you guys, but while surfing the internet last week I came across it, but never saved the link. I think it is some project connected to US government.

Kind regards,

JPH