Martin:
After a weekend spent camping at Kenya's smallest game reserve, Saiwa Swamp, we're back in Kitale to film the PEEK trials.
Andrew Bastowrous is in town to launch the trial alongside Rono and staff from the Kitale Eye clinic. The aim is to train up teachers to use the smart phone's mobile app so that they can test the eyesight of every child in a school. The App uses the standard "Tumbling E" eyechart - designed for those who are not familiar with the roman alphabet. The phone's screen displays a series of randomly pointing capital E's of different sizes and the patient simply has to gesture in which direction the E points. The teacher then swipes across the screen in the same direction. The app then calculates a score based on which it decides whether or not the child needs to attend the eye hospital for further tests. Because it is on a smart phone the App can then generate text messages for the parent, the school and the hospital requesting that the child attends.
The "Tumbling E" test can give an early indication of developing eye problems but the PEEK phones are capable of much more. With a lense adaptor on it becomes a sophisticated eye examination tool capable of producing high resolution images of the eye at a fraction of the cost of standard equipment - and it can be used in the most remote locations. PEEK is deceptively simple, but has the ability to take eye care well beyond the centres of excellence in major towns. This really could be a revolution for Africa and the world - all very exciting.
With Andrew, Rono and Cosmos we head out for a school just outside Kitale. The teacher here is an English teacher, or more precisely as he points out - "A teacher of English". He's not used anything like this before and isn't familiar with the basics of smartphones ie he needs to learn how to swipe the screen. It's a good test of PEEK.
With a little help from Cosmos he soon gets the hang of it. The phone diagnoses one of the boys in the class as needing glasses and sends a text to the parent, headmaster and hospital. After further tests at the clinic he'll be fitted with a new pair of glasses.
You might expect that having people in a classroom filming the teacher doing something strange and interesting at the back of the room might be disruptive but we're amazed by how well behaved the children are. Despite the disturbance they carry on with their work. It's hard to imagine that happening so smoothly back in the UK. These kids really do want to learn.
I'll edit together a little film of the PEEK trials as soon as I get time - but in the meantime here's the result of a little fun we had with the kids and Tumbling E at breaktime...
