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Virginia Tech

The Development and Validation of a Biofidelic Synthetic Eye for the Facial and Ocular CountermeasUre Safety (FOCUS) Headform

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

There are over 1.9 million eye injuries per year in the United States with over 30,000 patients left blind in at least one eye as a result of trauma. Some of the most severe eye injuries can occur in automobile accidents and from sports related impacts. Eye injuries in the military environment are even more prevalent and are generally more severe than eye injuries to civilians. The rate of eye injuries has dramatically increased in warfare in recent years, rising from 2% of all casualties during World War I and World War II to over 13% of all combat injuries in Operation Desert Storm. While many of the conflict-related eye injuries are caused by shrapnel and other debris, nearly 25% of the injuries are also caused by blunt trauma from motor vehicle and helicopter crashes, falling, and direct hits from blunt objects. In order to develop safety countermeasures effective at preventing these eye injuries, as well as evaluate the eye injury potential of different impacts, it is desirable to have the capability for distinguishing between injurious and non-injurious eye impacts. Current anthropometric test device (ATD) headforms lack instrumentation and facial features to allow detailed assessment of eye or discrete facial injuries. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is to present the development and validation of the Facial and Ocular CountermeasUre Safety (FOCUS) headform's synthetic eye and orbit and corresponding eye injury risk criteria.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Ph. D.
Level thesis:degree_level
doctoral
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Biomedical Engineering
Department dc:contributor.department
Biomedical Engineering
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2007

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Kennedy, Eric A.
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Duma, Stefan M.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Gabler, Hampton Clay
  • Brolinson, P. Gunnar
  • Herring, Ian P.
  • Madigan, Michael L.
  • Stitzel, Joel D.

Subjects

dc:subject × 5

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
etd-08112007-155004
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/28618

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Kennedy, Eric A.. The Development and Validation of a Biofidelic Synthetic Eye for the Facial and Ocular CountermeasUre Safety (FOCUS) Headform. doctoral thesis, Virginia Tech, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/28618