MIT Testing Portable Machine to Help the Blind to See

Elizabeth Goldring of MIT is working on a device that may help certain legally blind people see. In some cases of blindness, a functional retina is hidden behind cloudy lenses which block any kind of clear vision. Doctors currently use a large, and very expensive device called a scanning laser opthalmoscope, which can temporarily focus an image on these hidden lenses, allowing people to temporarily see. Goldring’s device replicates this process on a much smaller scale, using a hacked together combination of a digital camera and a color LED back-lit LCD screen. She’s been working on this portable SLO for a while now – a larger black & white unit was created in 2006. There is high hopes for this device, and prototype testing will take place soon at the Beetham Eye Institute in Boston.

[via Engadget]