Notting Hill company Cylite makes world-first eye-imaging technology

Published on 27 October 2021

An innovative local company has developed an eye-opening Australian invention, picking up prestigious awards for its unique medical technology along the way.

In what is a world-first, the multi-disciplinary team at Cylite, based in Notting Hill, has developed enhanced eye-imaging technology that can, potentially, save people’s vision.

Cylite has built the next generation of optical coherence tomography (OCT) - a non-invasive technology that takes detailed images of the eye, building a 3D picture to detect and diagnose eye diseases like cataracts or macular degeneration.

While OCT technology has been around since 1996 using a scanning laser to take images of the eye, because the eye naturally moves it is difficult to capture a high-quality image without the effects of eye movement.

Cylite’s Vice-President - Commercial and Clinical, Kylee Hall, said Cylite’s Hyperparallel OCT, or HP-OCT®, has overcome this limitation to produce accurate 3D eye images.

“Conventional devices use a (single) scanning laser (beam), but the Cylite team has been able to split this laser into 1008 'beamlets',” she said.

“It enables the capture of a detailed image of the eye and is capable of capturing a wider area of the eye in one scan, compared to existing OCTs.”

Cylite co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Grant Frisken said the team combined state-of-the-art optics, electronics, mechanical engineering and software to create a unique form of imaging technology that has never existed before.

Optometrists and ophthalmologists world-wide are clamouring to get their hands on the ground-breaking device, which will be launched later this year.

Cylite has tripled its production team since the COVID-19 pandemic began and now has a workforce of more than 50 people to prepare for product commercialisation.

Last November, Cylite, along with its industrial design partner, Melbourne’s Cobalt Design, won the Sir William Hudson Award — Engineers Australia’s highest accolade. Then, in March this year, they also took home the prestigious Victorian Premier’s Design Award of the Year, as well as Best in Category for Product Design.

Cylite’s story is another inspiring insight into the successful and world-class medical technology equipment developers and manufacturers at the Monash Precinct.