Pupil Focussed

Taking photos with a flash often leads to 'red eye' – bright light reflecting off the retina leaves pictured faces with red pupils. This is actually a healthy sign of clear eyes – with the flash doing a similar job to a doctor’s ophthalmoscope. With many more photos taken during early childhood than routine eye exams, a new app called CRADLE (also called White Eye Detector) can help parents to scan through photos of their children, spotting any unusual 'white eye' reflections – known as leukocoria – that may need checking by a doctor. This set of leukocoric pupils on the left, and healthy ones on the right, from children under three years old, were used to train the software to spot tell-tale signs – potentially leading to earlier diagnosis of conditions that obstruct the eye, like childhood cataracts or amblyopia.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

Writer

A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

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• Image from work by Micheal C. Munson and Devon L. Plewman
• Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Baylor University, Waco, TX, USA
• Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY-NC 4.0)
• Published in Science Advances, October 2019