MIT
It has been postulated that the latest devices which deal in automatic vision rectification (like Vision Correcting Displays) could be the end of reading spectacles.
Scientists at MIT and University of California, Berkley have devised display gadgets that automatically correct the view so that no glasses or contact lenses are needed anymore.
Thus GPS displays in cars could show the drivers various stuff in accordance with their shortsightedness or farsightedness. The world’s first reading glasses were invented 700 years ago.
Today we have laser eye surgery and contact lenses but the fact of the matter is that both these procedures are as invasive in case of faulty vision, as liposuction or bariatric surgery are in case of morbid obesity.
“The first spectacles were invented in the 13th century,” says Gordon Wetzstein, a research scientist at the Media Lab and one of the display’s co-creators.
“Today, of course, we have contact lenses and surgery, but it’s all invasive in the sense that you either have to put something in your eye, wear something on your head, or undergo surgery. We have a different solution that basically puts the glasses on the display, rather than on your head. It will not be able to help you see the rest of the world more sharply, but today, we spend a huge portion of our time interacting with the digital world.”
A far better choice would be to put the vision correction device on the displayed article in question. And while this would not allow the rest of the natural world to appear in focus to the person concerned, it would definitely allow the readable or viewable article to be seen in crystal clear quality.
The 3D technology is dependent upon cameras that project different images to both the left and right pupils. The correct focal distance is achieved by this new device.
There are various complexities involving parallax errors and correct number of pixels that have to be sorted out. Thus the device is still in its prototypical stages.
The latest versions show a slight loss of resolution so things are not as perfect as they ought to be. But with the passage of time and several experimental phases later, everything will have worked out just fine and the device would be ready for the market.
“Most people in mainstream optics would have said, ‘Oh, this is impossible,’” says Chris Dainty, a professor at the University College London Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital. “But Ramesh’s group has the art of making the apparently impossible possible.”
“The key thing is they seem to have cracked the contrast problem,” Dainty adds.
“In image-processing schemes with incoherent light — normal light that we have around us, nonlaser light — you’re always dealing with intensities. And intensity is always positive (or zero). Because of that, you’re always adding positive things, so the background just gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And the signal-to-background, which is contrast, therefore gets smaller as you do more processing. It’s a fundamental problem.”
So far the gizmo almost reminds one of an unbelievable thing that has been made not only believable but actual. The most obvious application of this sort of leading edge technology is in dashboard displays.
Cars will be the first objects of choice in which it would be used much to the relief and benefit of myopic drivers everywhere. The navigation of the vehicle will then be a cinch and the possibility of accidents will thus be reduced.
