USAFSAM teams with Innova Systems, Inc. for new color vision test

  • Published
  • By John Schutte
  • 711th Human Performance Wing
For people with hereditary and acquired color vision deficiency--sometimes referred as color blindness--it can be challenging or even impossible to hold certain jobs in either the military or civilian sector.

In many occupations, the ability to accurately see colors is critical to success. In some cases, such as for Air Force pilot training, candidates are excluded if tests show that they have deficient color vision, regardless of the degree of deficiency.

Current color vision testing typically provides only a 'pass-fail' determination, often times incorrectly identifying the candidate as having normal color vision when they are in fact color deficient.

In the advanced, color-rich, modern military aircraft cockpit this has been demonstrated to be a potential problem.

Under a cooperative research and development agreement with Innova Systems, Inc., the 711th Human Performance Wing, United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine is responding to this problem with a new test of color vision. The Cone Contrast Test, as it has been named, is a computer software-generated clinical color vision test that indicates type (red, green or blue) and severity (mild to severe) of color vision deficiency and quantifies normal color performance.

"This is important because under the U.S. Air Force's Operational Based Vision Assessment program, it is critical to know the extent of the deficiency a candidate has in order to assess the risk it poses to the warfighter's ability to perform a mission," said Lt. Col. (Dr.) John M. Gooch, Ophthalmologist and Chief of USAFSAM's Aerospace Ophthalmology Branch at Brooks City-Base, Texas.

The CCT accurately detects hereditary color vision loss and reveals color loss acquired from disease, trauma, certain medications and environmental conditions such as hypoxia (a deficiency in the amount of oxygen reaching body tissues), according to Dr. Gooch.

Dr. Jeff C. Rabin, USAFSAM vision researcher, developed the CCT. The USAFSAM Ophthalmology Branch is teaming with Innova Systems, Inc. to transition their color vision research into a widely available, fully fielded system.

A person's ability to see colors depends upon a complex mechanism involving the eye's retina, a neuro-membrane lining the inside-back portion of the eye. The retina contains two types of light sensitive cells, rods and cones, which convert light energy into signals that the optic nerve carries to the brain.

Only the cones--characterized as red, green and blue cone types--are sensitive to color.

"Unlike conventional color vision testing, the CCT is a rapid, accurate and clinically expedient test that presents a random sequence of colored letters that are visible to only one cone type at a time, to provide a cone-specific numeric score," Dr. Gooch said.

That numeric score is then used to help determine a candidate's occupational selection, detect and monitor disease, and potentially help determine a candidate's ability to perform certain job functions.

Under the CRADA, the Air Force will work with Innova to refine the CCT software and develop a user-friendly, PC-based, automated calibration system providing a technology package with laboratory-quality color vision test capability in a field-deployable unit. Innova, located in Burr Ridge, Illinois, is a family-owned business that supports the vision care industry through manufacture of high quality computerized vision testing systems.

The Air Force will leverage Innova's production, manufacturing and marketing capabilities to develop a commercial-off-the-shelf version of the CCT suitable for both military and civilian settings.

Air Force senior leadership has directed that the CCT be fielded Air Force wide within this year, and other DoD, international and civilian agencies are moving to utilize the system to improve selection, retention, operational performance and safety of pilots, aircrew and other warfighters.

"This technology will provide superior color vision assessment capabilities to the warfighter and will be easily integrated into Air Force personnel testing and selection systems," Dr. Gooch said. "Many military and civilian jobs depend upon the ability to accurately see color. Since implementing the prototype CCT on a trial basis at the Air Force Academy and at Brooks City-Base, the Air Force has seen a dramatic increase in the percentage of candidates accurately detected with color vision deficiency, thus reducing the number of candidates inaccurately diagnosed or who were not detected using pass-fail testing technology."

Implementing the CCT at more than 100 Air Force Bases across the U. S. will reduce the need for Air Force candidates and patients to travel to test-specific bases, at an estimated savings of up to $100,000 per year. Savings due to improved safety, enhanced job performance and accident avoidance are harder to predict but could easily reach tens of millions of dollars for every military aircraft accident avoided.

Commercial pilots and persons with occupations in the transportation industry or law enforcement could potentially be tested to better determine their visual capability. Civilian eye care professionals may be drawn to using this new testing methodology once the advantages over the older methods become apparent.
 
USAFSAM is a global leader in clinical aviation and space medicine and in technical and advanced aerospace medicine training, consultation and research. The school is part of the Air Force Research Laboratory's 711th Human Performance Wing.