Many people take their sight for granted and do not think of the many issues that people with vision impaired conditions have to deal with on a daily basis. It is estimated that there are approximately 285 million people worldwide that are affected by severely impaired vision. With the aid of glasses, contact lenses, and laser eye surgery many of these people are able to increase their level of vision substantially, but for some people, these are not options that are available. With technology advancing daily, there are now, even more, options available to those who are vision impaired, increasing the chance of better sight for even more people.
One new technological invention recently introduced that can help the vision-impaired see around them is the new Smart Specs by VA-ST. These revolutionary glasses are designed to enhance the appearance of objects and people. The way in which the specs work are by improving the remaining vision of the vision impaired person improving contrast and visual features and making it easier to define shapes of objects. Smart Specs work using software that hides the background and highlights edges and features to enhance visibility and could help with sufferers of tunnel vision, cloudy vision, night blindness and more!
Another wonderful invention to aid those with impaired vision is the retinal implant, which is used to restore vision using an artificial retina. Stanford professor, Daniel Palanker and his team have been developing special glasses to provide wireless data to retinal implants which will involve projecting processed data from the glasses to the implant then converting the electrical impulses to transmit then to the neurons in the brain.
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There are also two other start-up companies worth mentioning that are currently on the market helping with vision related issues. The first one is called EnChroma, and they have introduced the idea of using special glasses to filter out some of the overlaps in colors that many color blind people suffer from. They work by allowing less light in through the glasses and allowing a heightened ability to distinguish between red and green. The second start-up company to look out for in the visual impairment aid field is Blitab. They are seeking to introduce the world’s first Braille tablet device which will feature not only an interactive Braille interface but also speech input and output.
Many of us may need vision impairment aids now; others may require them in the future. Whatever the situation, you can be assured that every day new products and technologies are being designed to help with the ongoing issues vision impaired people are challenged with on a daily basis and can be reassured that help is on its way to making the future clearer for everyone.
