home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Floppyshop 2
/
Floppyshop - 2.zip
/
Floppyshop - 2.iso
/
diskmags
/
0022-3.564
/
dmg-3413
/
news.txt
/
videoeye.asc
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1989-04-05
|
4KB
|
65 lines
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ VIDEO GOGGLES GIVE SECOND SIGHT TO AGING EYES ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Goggles fitted with a video camera and two tiny video screens could
transform the lives of people whose vision has deteriorated due to
diseases such as diabetes or simple aging. Researchers from NASA's
Stennis Space Center in Mississippi and the Wilmer Eye Institute at the
John Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore unveiled the video goggles
last week.
For people who have serious visual impairment but are not completely
blind, the new system not only magnifies images but increases contrast.
One of the chief complaints among people with impaired vision is the
inability to recognise faces, due to loss of contrast sensitivity, says
Robert Massof, an inventor of the system and director of the Lions Vision
Center at the Wilmer Eye Institute. The new system can also reverse the
contrast so that black print on white paper appears as white print on
black paper, decreasing the scattered light and aiding some viewers.
Massof has already tried the prototype on 50 patients. "Some who
have tried it cry with happiness," he says. "But some people are so vain
that they refuse to wear glasses, and some will refuse to wear this."
The Veterans Administration will begin clinical tests of the headset this
summer at medical centres around the US. The developers expect their
high-technology headgear to be on the market within three years at a cost
of around $3000.
The plastic goggles wrap around the front and sides of the head and
house a video cammera the size of a fingernail, and two cathode-ray tubes
that produce black and white images. The adjustable headset weighs about
600 grams and connects by wire to a battery pack worn on a belt. The
goggles can also be plugged directly into a television or video recorder.
The collaboration between NASA and the Wilmer Eye Institute began in
1985 with the aim of adapting vision and imaging technology developed
for the space programme to benefit people with impaired vision. They
considered adapting the 'virtual reality' helmets NASA had designed for
the proposed space station, but the liquid crystal displays did not have
sufficient contrast, and the helmets were too cumbersome. "We thought it
would be asking a bit too much to put that headgear on a 70 year-old
woman," says Massof.
The team is already working on the next generation of video goggles,
which will include an eye-tracking system hooked up to a computer that can
can process the images to correct specific visual problems. Douglas
Rickman, NASA's head researcher on the project, has designed software that
can alter the video images instantly to compensate for a hole in the
centre of the visual field caused by macular degeneration, for example.
Rickman believes that within five years the processing could be done
on a computer small enough to wear. He also foresees wearable computers
that will mix sonar, X-ray , or thermal images into a video headset. A
firefighter wearing such goggles would look at the wall of a building and
see the plumbing and wiring running through it, as well as any flames
lapping at the other side.
New Scientist, 23/05/92
~~~~~eof~~~~~