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University's inventive streak wins international recognition

Innovations go on show after claiming awards in Europe

Hong Kong Polytechnic University has distinguished itself by winning seven awards at an international innovation exhibition in Brussels.

The university's optometry department won two awards for a hi-tech invention designed to help health professionals in poor countries make quick and inexpensive assessments of eye problems.

The Instant Vision Assessment Device spectacles won a gold award in the medical category and a special award at the 53rd World Exhibition of Innovation Research and New Technology in November. The spectacles and other inventions go on show at the university's House of Innovation today.

The telescopic spectacles simplify the traditional two-step vision-assessment procedure, involving a computerised auto-refractor and assessment by an optometrist, into one step.

Patients simply need to put on the spectacles, look at an object six metres away, then turn knobs on the spectacles to focus the lens.

Team leader George Woo, associate dean of the university's health and social sciences faculty, said the device was inspired by the World Health Organisation's Vision 2020 initiative to help eliminate avoidable blindness by 2020.

Costing around $100 a pair if mass produced, Professor Woo said the device was suited for use in third-world and developing countries that could not afford optometrists and expensive equipment.

'Training optometrists costs a lot of money and time, and it's very inconvenient to take bulky eye-testing equipment to remote areas. This means a lot of people suffering from eye diseases are not diagnosed in time to prevent them from losing their sight,' he said. 'With this device ... you just need to train a health-care assistant for two days. And this makes it very handy.'

Another of the university's innovations, a schoolbag designed to protect children's backs, was awarded a bronze prize.

Researcher Lee Tak-chi said a special back pad in the bag could help to correct posture and lessen stress on users' backs. Other inventions recognised include shape-memory fabrics, a mobile medical picture archive and communication system, a point-of-sale system using radio technology to pass on information about a product, and an ultrasound system to measure skin thickness and sensitivity.

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