5 ms·

'Smart glasses' help fix failing vision

29 points by bauc 12y ago

bauc 12y ago
It's great to see different solutions to tackling vision loss/blindness. It doesn't seem like it will be too long before people using these types of glasses will have better vision (thinking Geordie!). The trouble is the prototypes are often very clunky, but with things like Google Glasses I see the prototypes getting to be near 'invisible' like modern hearing aids.
- noir_lord 12y ago
  Saw the report this morning on the BBC impressive technology, real time high fidelity edge detection (looked something like a Sobel but they where correct for depth of field and it looked like closer objects had more detail). They are looking at using something like http://www.epson.co.uk/gb/en/viewcon/corporatesite/products/mainunits/overview/12411 http://www.epson.co.uk/gb/en/viewcon/corporatesite/products/... (showed on the report) for the next generation.
  - bauc 12y ago
    That looks impressive, a lot less bulky. I know applications are wider than for people with vision loss. Especially if it's opened up to application development through Android or similar like indicated.
gioele 12y ago
I am disappointed: I hoped the article was about a kind of glasses that would slowly improve your eyesight by keeping your eyes under constant exercise.
- Already__Taken 12y ago
  Can you even fix eyes like that?
  - stdbrouw 12y ago
    Actually, yes. Most doctors would call it fringe science, but I've been able to improve my eyesight with what's called Plus Lens Therapy. It has you wear glasses that are the opposite of those you've been subscribed, or that are significantly less strong, and using them while actively trying to focus at the edge of blur, e.g. by reading a book and keeping it far enough away so it's ever so slightly blurry but not too blurry either, forcing your eyes to clear the image. It's not clear why it works – do your eyes actually start changing their shape, or is it simply the eye muscles that get stronger? – but if you're willing to put in the months and months of effort it requires, for many it does help. See http://gettingstronger.org/2010/07/improve-eyesight-and-throw-away-your-glasses/ http://gettingstronger.org/2010/07/improve-eyesight-and-thro...
    - Houshalter 12y ago
      You may want to see this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7266233 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7266233 It could be a neurological thing. Their visual system gets more practice but the eyes themselves don't change (just speculation.) But there are now better methods of doing that which are (supposedly) very effective.
  - tokenadult 12y ago
    It's highly debatable that you can fix eyes like that. Optometry developed historically as a practice of prescribing eye exercises for "vision therapy," but most optometrists these days measure refractions to fit corrective eyeglasses to their patients, just like ophthalmologists. I know several people, a few of them quite closely, who have convinced themselves that they are improving their vision by eye exercises or by refraining from using prescribed corrective eyeglasses, but what they are mostly doing is kidding themselves as they go through life with needlessly blurred vision. The way to be sure whether or not eyes can be fixed like that is to set up an experiment with random assignment to treatment and control groups, and to have investigators who are "blind" (an unfortunately coincidental word in this context) to each subject's assignment to this or that group test their vision carefully. I confidently predict that any treatment effects found in such a study with the methods you read about on Reddit will be of small effect, of brief duration, and obtained at more trouble than the improvement in vision that comes from wearing prescribed corrective lenses.
vixin 12y ago
Off topic really but check out Google Scholar for a fair number of papers showing that anthocyanins (colored fruit and vegetables) work positively in terms of eye function.

29 points by bauc 12y ago

bauc 12y ago

It's great to see different solutions to tackling vision loss/blindness. It doesn't seem like it will be too long before people using these types of glasses will have better vision (thinking Geordie!). The trouble is the prototypes are often very clunky, but with things like Google Glasses I see the prototypes getting to be near 'invisible' like modern hearing aids.

noir_lord 12y ago
Saw the report this morning on the BBC impressive technology, real time high fidelity edge detection (looked something like a Sobel but they where correct for depth of field and it looked like closer objects had more detail). They are looking at using something like http://www.epson.co.uk/gb/en/viewcon/corporatesite/products/mainunits/overview/12411 http://www.epson.co.uk/gb/en/viewcon/corporatesite/products/... (showed on the report) for the next generation.
- bauc 12y ago
  That looks impressive, a lot less bulky. I know applications are wider than for people with vision loss. Especially if it's opened up to application development through Android or similar like indicated.

gioele 12y ago

I am disappointed: I hoped the article was about a kind of glasses that would slowly improve your eyesight by keeping your eyes under constant exercise.

Already__Taken 12y ago
Can you even fix eyes like that?
- stdbrouw 12y ago
  Actually, yes. Most doctors would call it fringe science, but I've been able to improve my eyesight with what's called Plus Lens Therapy. It has you wear glasses that are the opposite of those you've been subscribed, or that are significantly less strong, and using them while actively trying to focus at the edge of blur, e.g. by reading a book and keeping it far enough away so it's ever so slightly blurry but not too blurry either, forcing your eyes to clear the image. It's not clear why it works – do your eyes actually start changing their shape, or is it simply the eye muscles that get stronger? – but if you're willing to put in the months and months of effort it requires, for many it does help. See http://gettingstronger.org/2010/07/improve-eyesight-and-throw-away-your-glasses/ http://gettingstronger.org/2010/07/improve-eyesight-and-thro...
  - Houshalter 12y ago
    You may want to see this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7266233 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7266233 It could be a neurological thing. Their visual system gets more practice but the eyes themselves don't change (just speculation.) But there are now better methods of doing that which are (supposedly) very effective.
- tokenadult 12y ago
  It's highly debatable that you can fix eyes like that. Optometry developed historically as a practice of prescribing eye exercises for "vision therapy," but most optometrists these days measure refractions to fit corrective eyeglasses to their patients, just like ophthalmologists. I know several people, a few of them quite closely, who have convinced themselves that they are improving their vision by eye exercises or by refraining from using prescribed corrective eyeglasses, but what they are mostly doing is kidding themselves as they go through life with needlessly blurred vision. The way to be sure whether or not eyes can be fixed like that is to set up an experiment with random assignment to treatment and control groups, and to have investigators who are "blind" (an unfortunately coincidental word in this context) to each subject's assignment to this or that group test their vision carefully. I confidently predict that any treatment effects found in such a study with the methods you read about on Reddit will be of small effect, of brief duration, and obtained at more trouble than the improvement in vision that comes from wearing prescribed corrective lenses.

vixin 12y ago

Off topic really but check out Google Scholar for a fair number of papers showing that anthocyanins (colored fruit and vegetables) work positively in terms of eye function.