Researchers from Cambridge University are using technology designed to detect structural anomalies in the ocular health of astronauts in an app that uses generative artificial intelligence (AI) to assess eye health.

Developers explained that users can take a picture of their eye using a smartphone and AI trained on thousands of both healthy and impaired eyes will produce an image that makes it possible for an ophthalmologist to make a diagnosis.

The AngioGenius technology developed by the Cambridge University team was originally intended to assess space-induced vision changes — like astroSANS (Spaceflight Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome), for instance — that more than 75% of astronauts in space tend to experience.

The team developed a way to use handheld eye imaging technologies on the space station that incorporates a generative AI model capable of creating an image of the eye that could otherwise only be obtained using much larger machines as well as the injection of a dye into a vein.

Plans are for the AngioGenius to be rolled out to roughly one billion patients over the next decade, according to its developers.

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