A team of MS in Tech Innovation students is building a device to help patients overcome the daily struggle of self-administering eye drops.
By Justin Horne
Over one hundred million Americans use eye drops or eye washes each year. It’s a simple task for people with full mobility, but for individuals with low vision, limited hand dexterity, or mobility impairments, it can be frustrating or even impossible. A student-led team of graduate students at the University of Washington’s Global Innovation Exchange (GIX) is developing a smart, assistive device to improve accessibility, precision, and confidence in self-administering eye drops.
“We found out that our target users are elderly people who have limited physical abilities,” explained Ruiqing Wang, a student on the team with the MS in Technology Innovation, the flagship graduate program at GIX. “They struggle with self-administering eye drops because they might have low vision due to glaucoma or cataracts, and they cannot see the eye drop clearly.”
Vision issues are only part of the problem. “Some people have limited dexterity issues,” Wang continued. “They may have shaky hands, head tremors, or fingers that don’t move properly, making it difficult to aim and squeeze the bottle accurately.” Some people also experience reduced sensation around their eyes, meaning they can’t always tell if the drop actually went in.
Beyond these difficulties, there’s also the issue of wasted medication. “Many times, when you use eye drops, you only need one drop, but people use three to five drops just to make sure one goes in,” Wang explained.
The Design: An Automated and Precise Eye Drop Dispenser
The team’s device seeks to address four key challenges: aligning the bottle over the eye, squeezing the bottle to get an eye drop out, having confidence that the drop entered the eye, and adhering to the correct schedule of treatment.
To develop an effective solution, the team conducted extensive user research, including interviews with elderly participants who experience dexterity limitations. “We have conducted seven interviews with people aging from 60 to 80,” said student Sam Wong. The participants ranged from individuals with arthritis to those using wheelchairs, offering a diverse perspective on the problem.
One particularly memorable participant had post-polio syndrome, which affected their ability to move their thumb naturally. “She had to wear a brace to stop her thumb from moving and use that as a surface to apply pressure to the bottle,” recalled Wong. Another participant demonstrated how they lay down to use their drops, while others attempted to adjust their wheelchairs to enable them to administer the drops.
In addition to firsthand observations, the team also tested existing eye drop aids. “There are current solutions, but each of them only solves one part of the problem,” said Wong. “Some help with squeezing, others help with aiming,” Wong noted. “We want to solve multiple steps of the process.”
The Solution: A Modular, Adaptive Design
The team took an iterative approach to prototyping, refining individual components before integrating them into a single device. “Initially, we tested different technical elements separately,” team member Yuecheng Peng explained.
Presently, the team has a 3D-printed, modular device which contains a variety of sensors, motors, and feedback mechanisms to help the user position it correctly and then to dispense the eyedrops.
For dispensing the drops, the team explored two approaches—a ratchet-based mechanism and a stepper motor. “The ratchet wasn’t very accurate; sometimes two drops would dispense instead of one,” said Peng. They chose a stepper motor, which allows for more precise control.
For aiming, they added an infrared camera to detect and alert the correct position for administering drops. “The camera takes real-time video and sends it to a Raspberry Pi computer which uses OpenCV and other algorithms to detect the eyedrop, count how many come out of the bottle, and track if it falls into the eyeball,” said Ruiqing Wang.
The device provides haptic feedback and audio cues to confirm successful administration. “When the bottle is positioned correctly, a signal is sent, and a buzzer and vibration motor create feedback,” said Peng.
The modular design allows for easy adjustments. “If we want to change the angle of the dropper, we only need to reprint a small part instead of the whole device,” explained Peng.
The Role of Faculty and Sponsors in Guiding Development
Throughout the project, faculty advisors played a key role in shaping the team’s direction. “One thing they really helped with was scoping our problem correctly,” noted Wong. “We’ve got a lot of freedom to explore different potential solutions.”
“The faculty really helped us go from a divergent to convergent effort,” added Wang. “We sometimes brainstorm too much and try to solve a huge problem. They helped us identify the true problems.”
What’s Next?
With a functional prototype in place, the team is preparing for further user testing.
“We were in the prototyping and idea phase for a very long time,” said Wong. “I think the most exciting part for us right now is, after a lot of iteration, we finally have a very tangible solution. Everything is converging.”
In addition to hardware improvements, they are also developing a companion app to track usage and send reminders. “Initially, we planned just to add a video tutorial, but after our first round of testing, we realized users wanted a step-by-step, task-based tutorial,” said project member Jassie He. The app will also allow users to log their doses and share reports with caregivers.
For the team, the most rewarding part of the process has been seeing participants’ enthusiasm. “All the people we’ve interviewed have been really into this project,” Wang said. “They all told us they want to come back and try the device once it’s fully developed.”
As they move forward, they hope their research will not only lead to a useful product but also provide valuable insights for future accessibility-focused design. “We’re not just solving one problem—we’re creating guidelines for future research in assistive technology,” said Wang.
Ready to work on projects like these? Learn more about the MS in Technology Innovation or apply to be a student.
Interested in sponsoring a project? GIX capstone projects offer corporate sponsors up to six months of access to international and interdisciplinary teams of graduate students in the University of Washington’s project-based Master of Science in Technology Innovation. Learn more here.
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