• Benefits young children: The VisiScreen OSS-C is the first vision screening system that requires no response from the child being screened so it can be used on infants, pre-verbal, or non-verbal children.
• Promotes early intervention: An estimated one in ten school-age children has a vision problem, some of which may lead to blindness. With early detection, almost all of these problems can be corrected.
• Helps children succeed in school: School-age children with undiagnosed vision problems require more teacher attention, are often wrongly diagnosed as learning disabled, and run a higher risk of falling behind academically.
• Reaches millions of U.S. families: Vision Research Corporation’s (VRC’s) large-scale screenings reach hundreds of thousands of infants and children each year through schools, day care centers, pediatricians, and family doctors.

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Vision Research Corporation (VRC), based in Birmingham, Alabama, specializes in the development and implementation of advanced-technology screening systems and programs for the detection of eye problems in children. VRC is the only provider of comprehensive, large-scale photorefractive eye screening programs in the country. They have screened over 4 million children for eye problems in public schools and day care centers, thereby minimizing academic problems resulting from poor vision, identifying children who need to be seen by an eye care professional, and helping children receive necessary examinations and treatment.

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The photorefractive optics technology was originally developed for use in NASA space telescopes and Earth imaging systems during the Landsat and Skylab space telescope missions in the 1970s. While working at Marshall Space Flight Center on image processing and space optics, Joseph Kerr and the late John Richardson discovered that eye abnormalities and diseases cause the eyes to reflect light in distinctly different ways. This discovery led the innovators to develop and patent a method and device for detecting human eye defects.

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Kerr was working as a consultant for Science Applications International Corporation, in Huntsville, Alabama, when he met an ophthalmologist studying ways to improve vision screening for children. Kerr instantly saw that his work at NASA was applicable to vision screening and he received funding from NASA’s Research and Technology Operating Plan (RTOP) to pursue technology transfer of NASA’s optics technology. In collaboration with research ophthalmologists and optometrists, the NASA team developed a vision screening method based on a process called photorefraction. A photorefractor consisting of a special camera, lens, and electronic flash takes a detailed, highly precise color photo of the child’s eyes that can then be analyzed for abnormalities. Initial tests proved highly successful and were followed by a series of refinements and formal clinical studies.

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With the help of a cost-sharing contract from NASA, Kerr formed Electro-Optic Instruments Inc., in Wedowee, Alabama (later named Medical Sciences Corporation). In 1989, VRC president James Kennemer learned of the ocular screening technology through a contact in Marshall Space Flight Center’s Technology Commercialization and Licensing office. VRC acquired Kerr’s company and began marketing the VisiScreen system in 1991 under an exclusive license from NASA. Since that time, VRC has performed vision screenings on over 4 million children in the United States.

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VRC is planning more improvements and enhancements to the VisiScreen technology, and they are currently testing the next generation of the screening system. The new, digital version still relies on the same photorefractive technology originally developed by NASA, and it offers several advanced features that will allow the screening system to be even more effective at detecting eye problems in young children.

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If you would like more information about this technology (MFS-26011-1) or about other technologies available for license, please contact:

Sammy Nabors
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center
Manager, Technology Commercialization and Licensing
Phone: (256) 544-5226
Fax: (256)-544-4810
E-mail: sammy.nabors@nasa.gov

VisiScreen is a trademark of Vision Research Corporation.

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