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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
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.
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?
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... does it make The Noise from "The Six Million Dollar Man" when it zooms in?
Nvidia doesn't have any patience.
The preceding comment is my own, and in no way construes an opinon of the Emperor of Mankind.
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.
'Cause we ain't as smart a specialized single cell?
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
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.
You got it wrong by not trying to understand how a telescope helps. That would make you the moron. They put a telescope on the cornea as a way to distribute the light reflected from the object of interest to areas of retina around the damaged macula that isn't damaged. It is a way to allow functioning parts of the eye to be used to see things in the centre. My mother had this disease and it would have been awesome if she would have been able to use something like this (the idea came to late, even the implantable ones) for her.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
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 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
Sorry, the last line of my text didn't post....
Amy K. Brown MS, CLVT, CVRT
Masters of Vision Rehabilitation
Certified Low Vision Therapist
Certified Vision Rehabilitation Therapist