[nfbwatlk] Seeing Machine Helps Blind See Pictures - PC World

Mon Jan 26 00:08:15 UTC 2009

Yes.  it seems to me that money, time and energy ought to be used for the 
development and training of alternatives.

Kaye
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij at panix.com>
To: <nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2009 3:21 PM
Subject: Re: [nfbwatlk] Seeing Machine Helps Blind See Pictures - PC World

> It is certainly a wondrous thing how easily research professors can waste 
> the taxpayers' money!
>
> Mike
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Kristina Lawrence <tishgifts at gmail.com>
> To: NFB of Washington Talk Mailing List <nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org>
> Date: Sunday, Jan 25, 2009 13:40:14
> Subject: Re: [nfbwatlk] Seeing Machine Helps Blind See Pictures - PC World
>
>>
>>
>> Hey, that sounds very much  like the Virtual Retinal Display that the
>> Human Interface Technology Labratory was working on at the University
>> of Washington. Riley was just a baby when I was still dealing with
>> that group. Sounds like things have come a long way.
>>
>> Kris
>>
>> On Sun, Jan 25, 2009 at 2:22 AM, Lauren Merryfield
>> <lauren1 at catliness.com> wrote:
>> > Seeing Machine Helps Blind See Pictures - PC World
>> >
>> > PC World
>> >
>> > Seeing Machine Helps Blind See Pictures
>> > A seeing machine developed at MIT helps people with visual impairments 
>> > see pictures.
>> > Nick Barber, IDG News Service
>> >
>> > Friday, January 23, 2009 12:00 PM PST
>> >
>> > Using her prototype "seeing machine," Elizabeth Goldring can take 
>> > pictures and see them -- with her blind eye.
>> >
>> > After more than 20 years of work, Goldring, a senior fellow at MIT's 
>> > Center for Advanced Visual Studies and her colleagues have designed a 
>> > portable device
>> > that allows people with visual impairments to watch videos, access the 
>> > internet, view photographs, or just see the face of a friend.
>> >
>> >
>> > Her work started when she lost the vision in both of her eyes and 
>> > doctors at the Schepens Eye Research Institute in Boston used a 
>> > scanning laser ophthalmoscope,
>> > or SLO, to determine if she had any healthy retina left. The machine, 
>> > which costs over USDD100,000, projected images directly onto the retina 
>> > of the eye,
>> > bypassing the hemorrhages contributing to her blindness.
>> >
>> > "Technicians projected stick figures onto my retinas and I could see 
>> > some of those stick figures," she said of the experience. Goldring then 
>> > asked them
>> > if they could write the word "sun," which she could also see. "I was 
>> > amazed. It was the first word I'd seen for months."
>> >
>> > After her visit, she contacted and worked with the inventor of the SLO, 
>> > hoping to reduce the size and cost of the device. That research yielded 
>> > a $4,000
>> > desktop model that allowed the blind to see black-and-white images. 
>> > Soon after, a desktop model was created that allowed for color images 
>> > to be seen. Goldring
>> > admits that version doesn't work well, but it paved the way for the 
>> > current prototype.
>> >
>> > Once a video signal is plugged into the 5-inch square box, it is then 
>> > fed to an LCD panel on the inside, according to Quinn Smithwick, a 
>> > postdoctoral associate
>> > at the MIT Media who has been working with Goldring on the seeing 
>> > machine. The connection to the box is for a standard RCA video jack so 
>> > almost anything
>> > with a video output can be plugged in. The LCD panel inside is 
>> > illuminated by a bright bank of LEDs behind it, which are collimated, 
>> > or traveling in the
>> > same direction. As the light passes through the LCD screen, the image 
>> > pattern is "imprinted" onto the light. A lens at the back of the box 
>> > focuses the
>> > light into a single point, which then enters the pupil of the eye and 
>> > passes onto the retina.
>> >
>> > "It's not that we're taking the camera image and blowing it up so you 
>> > can see something big," said Smithwick. "We're trying to bypass any bad 
>> > optics you
>> > may have and then get enough light and enough contrast onto the back of 
>> > your retina and then you can use what little bits of retina you may 
>> > have left to
>> > view it."
>> >
>> > Goldring thinks the seeing machine could help people with macular 
>> > degeneration and proliferative retinal diseases, two of the main causes 
>> > of blindness in
>> > the U.S., according to Goldring. Using the device, Goldring said she 
>> > can see faces and general details of people such as the color of their 
>> > hair and what
>> > they are wearing. Without it, she would only know that someone is 
>> > standing close to her.
>> >
>> > Brandon Taylor, a graduate student at the MIT Media Lab, said the next 
>> > step for the seeing machine is to test it with a wider population.
>> >
>> > "We've received positive results with Elizabeth and there have been a 
>> > couple other people who have used it and its been very encouraging, but 
>> > what we really
>> > want to do for this testing phase is figure out what types of eye 
>> > conditions this is beneficial for ... and how much improvement this 
>> > machine can achieve,"
>> > said Taylor. Goldring noted that there does need to be some working 
>> > retina for the machine to work.
>> >
>> > "People aren't interested in what blind people see and we have a lot of 
>> > pent-up desire to express ourselves visually and this is the first step 
>> > to that,"
>> > said Goldring.
>> >
>> > She and her team already have plans under way to test the seeing 
>> > machine at the Low Vision Clinic at the Joslin Diabetes Center's 
>> > Beetham Eye Institute
>> > in Boston. After refining the device, they would also like to make it 
>> > commercially available, though are not sure when it will be or for how 
>> > much. Their
>> > prototype, not including the digital camera, cost under $500 because 
>> > "everything in it is already mass-produced for other purposes," Taylor 
>> > said.
>> >
>> > "Keeping the visual sense alive is something good, even if you don't 
>> > use it to cross the street," Goldring said.
>> >
>> > 1998-2008, PC World Communications, Inc.
>> > When rays of sunlight break through the clouds on a gloomy day, it is
>> > a welcome reminder that the sun is always shining-comwhether I see it 
>> > or
>> > ndd-comfrom Daily Word, author unknown
>> > CATLINES has moved to a blog at:
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