Franz Fankhauser: The Father of the Automated Perimeter

Franz Fankhauser is known as the father of automated perimetry and of the q-switched Nd:YAG laser knife. His 15-year journey to computerize perimetry started in 1958 with unsuccessful attempts to automate kinetic perimetry. The switch to using static perimetry resulted in a breakthrough in 1973, and in 1975 the OCTOPUS perimeter came on the market. At the same time Fankhauser was working on the use of light sources for the treatment of ocular tissues. During his career, Fankhauser worked in very close collaboration with mathematicians, physicists, engineers. One of the most astonishing characteristics of Fankhauser was his ability to find and to motivate young scientists to work as a cohesive group for his projects.