Middle schooler develops device to treat strabismus

Gleb Smorodinov, an IT Lyceum ninth-grader, shares what motivates him to invent.

“My younger sister has been suffering from strabismus since birth. To treat this disease, she was prescribed Professor Pospelov’s method, which involves training the patient’s eyesight by the method of merging successive images. Simply put, the patient’s eyes are alternately illuminated with a special flash, after which a flashlight is shone on their eyes for about three minutes, during which time the patient combines the images resulting from the illumination,” says Gleb.

The patient is recommended to study an hour a day (in this case 20 flashes), but because of the sister’s inattentiveness, according to Gleb, as well as her unwillingness to receive treatment, it could take almost the whole day.

“Most of the time the duty was fulfilled by our mom, but sometimes I was also involved, which allowed me to appreciate the complexity of the process. To make life easier, I decided to create a device to automate flash treatment according to Prof. Pospelov’s method,” continues the young engineer.

The IT Lyceum provides assistance in this process.

“Thanks to the availability of the necessary equipment at the school (a machine for laser cutting on wood, plywood) it was possible to create the device. Soon we plan to print it on a 3D printer from plastic. The project had several versions, it took about a month and a half to develop from idea to final realization. With my device, the patient can practice on their own; before that, a person was needed to help the patient with the treatment,” says the interviewee.

He has already filed for a patent for the device which helps to develop and fix the binocularity of strabismus-affected eyes – without which full recovery is impossible.