Eye Care Advances ‘Smart glasses’ offer ‘a-ha’ moment in low-vision care Awareness-enhancing smart glasses have partially sighted trial subjects looking into the future of low-vision care and seeing the past—1985 to be exact. It appears that individuals with mild visual impairment will benefit the most from Oxfords smart glasses ... Thats because technology out of the University of Oxford combines camera-mounted spectacles with a pocket-sized processor and electronic display eyepieces to provide people with poor vision a new view of their surroundings, albeit through a hue that harkens back to a popular 80s music video. The glasses work like this: A video feed highlights the outlines of nearby objects, in a manner that looks like rotoscoping animation, and superimposes that simple image over the wearers existing vision. The glasses are designed to help with spatial awareness for everyday activities, not to replace lost vision. Currently in trial testing, the smart glasses are bulky, but researchers hope to eventually create a product that looks like normal eyeglasses and costs about the same as a smart phone. The project—developed in conjunction with the Royal National Institute of Blind People—was recently submitted into Googles Impact Challenge for further funding. Helping low-vision patients Brenda Heinke Montecalvo, O.D., chair of the AOAs Vision Rehabilitation Section (VRS), says the project appears still in its infancy, and further patient trials are needed to determine ease of use and how much function is improved with the device. It appears that individuals with mild visual impairment will benefit the most from Oxfords smart glasses while those with severe impairment and complete blindness may have more difficulty organizing and understanding the visual information provided, Dr. Montecalvo states. Many individuals classified as blind have partial sight to varying degrees, and the field of low-vision rehabilitation seeks to help those people make the best use of it. Optometrists already aid low-vision patients with tried-and-true devices such as spectacle-mounted magnifiers or miniature telescopes, and smart glasses could help bolster advances in video magnification, as well. Like these other devices, success of smart glasses could hinge on price if the project team delivers as promised. The focus on providing an affordable device to those who will benefit from smart glasses is a plus, Dr. Montecalvo says.
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 19:45:35 +0000
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