Slashdot Mirror
Telescopic Contact Lens With Switchable Magnification To Help AMD Patients
cylonlover writes "Age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness among older adults in the western world. Unfortunately, conventional optical aids provide little help for a retina which has lost the acuity of its central area. Now a team of multinational researchers led by University of California, San Diego Professor Joseph Ford has created a telescopic contact lens that can switch between normal and magnified vision to offer AMD patients a relatively unobtrusive way to enhance their vision."
I didnt realize that AMD was a disease - I guess i should of bought a machine with Intel Inside(TM)
Telescopic contact lens + Linux-powered rifle scope = I can finally become Hawkeye. Minus the abs.
sudo make me a sandwich
Zooming in for the breast shot! ;)
yes I know, we'll all be dirty old men one day.
But what about Intel pat oh wait, you beat me to it.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
Next you'll be telling me they invented a one-size-fits-all contact lens with anamorphic autofocus.
AMD problem solved.
We have the technology. We can rebuild them.
I realize AMD processors haven't been so great lately, but it's hardly necessary to consider those that use them as patients.
Unless you mean that we've learned to have patience with our computers.
The noncompos who wrote this article doesn't know the difference between a cornea and a retina. The macula is in the center of the retina, the cornea is the eye's outer lens. Does anybdoy have a link to an article about this that wasn't written by someone totally clueless about the subject matter? The subject itself is fascinating, but when I saw that moronic mistake I stopped reading.
If you need glasses to switch between magnification and no magnification, then why not simply make the glasses do the magnification?
This seems to be rather silly in my book.
Now, the implantable zoomming replacement eye lense that costs $25,000 an eye they dismissed as too expensive, no THAT seems worth talking about.
Came here to make an Intel joke too. Curses...
Well, what about other optical effects, like split screen, slow motion, Quantel?
"The Emergency Bra that doubles as a facemask"
What was TFA about now?
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
Garrett, is it you? :-)
... does it make The Noise from "The Six Million Dollar Man" when it zooms in?
But this is bad news for NVidia patients.
Can we please stop playing 19th century watchmaker now and start understanding how cells work? Can we find a way to repair the systems here or what? If matter was able to organize itself into a retina with just a single cell as a starting point, why are we utterly unable to repair these systems?
Lister: Any problems? ... closer, hmm, to the object. All right, okay. Well, what about other optical effects, like split screen, slow motion?
Kryten: Well, just one or two. In fact I've compiled a little list if you'll indulge me. Now then, uh, my optical system doesn't appear to have a zoom function.
Lister: No, human eyes don't have a zoom.
Kryten: Well then, how do you bring a small object into sharp focus?
Lister: Well, you just move your head closer to the object.
Kryten: I see. Move your head
Lister: No. We don't have them.
Kryten: You don't have them - just the zoom? Hmm. Well, no, that's fine, that's great, no, no, that's really great, that's great.
After the Catalyst Control Center, we'll get the Cataract Control Center, hopefully won't use .NET this time around.
Is there some fundamental reason why these are only useful to someone with damaged vision? Since they are not implanted and have no moving parts, they shouldn't be much worse than regular contact lenses, which some people wear for purely cosmetic reasons. The biggest problem I can see would be the light loss from the polarizing glasses. Two stops is significant, especially at night, and the ability of the iris to compensate will be hampered by the size of the central pupil in the contact lens.
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
I'll be a guinea pig.
Chewbacon
The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
AMD is a vision loss related condition. AMD is short for Age-related Macular Degeneration, and it is one of the main and a non preventable cause of vision loss and legal blindness in Americans (and others) over the age of 65. There may even be a hereditary factor to it, doctors still aren't 100% sure.
The macula is the part of the eye which is responsible for our close up, straight ahead, central, detailed vision..... for us to see 20/20 if possible. This is what we use for reading, seeing what we write, driving, recognizing ppl's faces..... anything you would do looking straight at something!
There are two forms of AMD: Wet AMD, which is a more aggressive form whereby blood vessels around the macula begin to leak causing sudden vision distortion, most common symptom is that straight lines, like door jams and telephone poles will appear 'squiggly'. This is an emergency situation, where if the Ophthalmologist can cauterize the leaking vessels quickly enough, the eye can sometimes flush the leaking, vision-disrupting blood away, restoring some better central vision over time. However, the bleeders generally continue to occur and only so much can be done to stop the bleeding w out creating scarring which also creates vision loss. The other form, Dry AMD, progresses a lot more slowly, though can turn into Wet AMD at any time.
As the macula degenerates over time as people age, the result is that the center of our visual field becomes blurry or even a blank, black area. For a pictoral example, see here; http://www.nei.nih.gov/health/examples/armd.jpg .
Typically, if you can magnify something enough for someone with AMD, they can see some of the details. I explain that central vision loss (called a scotoma) like this: Put a silver dollar coin on a newspaper article, somewhere within the text. That coin will block out a few lines of text and a number of letters/words. If you put a smaller coin, say a dime, over that same exact spot, a smaller area will be blocked, with less lines and letters missing. There are electronic devices which can provide enough magnification for most ppl w ARM to be able to read the newspaper, until their eye condition becomes too far advanced. There is no cure for AMD, only treatments to arrest the bleeding in Wet ARM. However, the electronic devices currently available are, by and large, heavy and not portable. There are portable devices, but they do not provide as much magnification as their screen size does not allow for as much magnification and letter size due to the smaller screen size. (For example, a non-portable 21 inch screen size vs a portable screen size of 6-8 inches diagonally.)
So, it appears that the goal of this telescopic device is to provide that amount of magnification by having it placed within the eye itself. It will be fascinating to see if this device works as it is hoped it will and of course if it is even within the means of the average senior citizen with ARM today.
(Oh, and for those who are wondering, NO, conventional glasses or regular contact lenses will NOT help correct or improve vision for people with ARM.)
Not sure why I'm stated as posting as "Anonymous Coward"..... but, I'm neither anonymous nor a coward.
Hope this was helpful to those interested......
Amy K. Brown, MS, CLVT, CVRT
-Masters in Vision Rehabilitation
-Certified Low Vision Therapist
-Certified Vision Rehabilitation Therapist
AMD is the abbreviation for Age-related Macular Degeneration, and it is one of the main causes of vision loss in first world countries among people age 65 and older. At this point there is no cure for AMD, and doctors still aren't completely sure what causes it. Perhaps, since we are living longer than generations before us did, our macula, which is responsible for straight-ahead, central, 20/20 detailed vision, is simply degenerating. Maybe before they were able to recognize and name this disease, it was something like this: "Grandma is really getting up in age (say 66 year old, when most ppl died around 60 years of age on average) and has now gone blind". Anyone ever hear that said about older and prior generation family members? There's a good chance that "Grandma" had AMD, there just wasn't a name for it yet.... besides "old age".
Some doctors now believe that there may be a genetic component to AMD as well, as it seems to run in families. Siblings may get AMD, and perhaps one of their parents had it too (or most likely did). Unfortunately there is currently no cure for AMD, only some treatment to arrest the progression of the disease and rehabilitation therapy skills and devices to teach patients how to "work around" and "live" with AMD, while still maintaining as much as the same quality of life before the vision loss.
Though the term "blind" is often used, generally, people who get AMD do not go completely blind (unless they have some other accompanying eye disease, such as glaucoma. Because AMD mainly affects the central 20 degrees or so of vision (which is the vision we use for reading, writing, driving, recognizing someone's facial features....) they will still have use of their peripheral vision. AMD can and often does result in legal blindness (only being able to see the "big E" on the standard Snellen eye chart, (if even that), and nothing smaller on the chart when sitting 20 feet away from it in a well lit area.
AMD can NOT be corrected with conventional eyeglasses or conventional contact lenses, as it is the degeneration or breaking down of a vital part of the retinal nerve which enables us to see centrally. The vision loss caused by AMD creates a blurry or even dark spot in the middle of your vision. For instance, if someone comes to the door and a person with AMD goes to answer the door, they may look at the person's face to see who it is, but not be able to make out the facial features enough or at all so as to identify who is standing at their door. To see an example of what someone with AMD might see when looking at a picture of two boys holding a soccer ball and a basket ball, go here: http://www.nei.nih.gov/health/examples/armd.jpg.
There are two types of AMD: Wet AMD, which the macula (at the back center of the retina, which lines the inside of the eye and goes to the back of the eye to become the Optic Nerve) has blood vessels which begin to leak blood into the center of the eyeball, which contains a clear jelly like substance. With blood leaking into that clear area, called the vitreous, it creates vision loss, and Wet AMD can occur suddenly and without warning. Often times, a patient will wake up and find that straight lines (like the door jam, or a telephone pole) appear to be "squiggly" as they see it. That is a main indicator that there is now bleeding into the eye and it is an emergency situation. If the patient can get into the Ophthalmologist right away, often the doctor can cauterize the bleeding vessels, thereby stopping the bleeding. In time the eye may be able to flush the blood out of the vitreous area, thereby clearing up the vision.
The slower, generally less aggressive form of AMD is called Dry AMD. This is the macula breaking down, and being reduced in its ability to see clearly. Often however, Dry AMD can suddenly become Wet AMD, so doctors will often have an AMD patient look at an amsler grid daily to ensure that