Like many 4 - twelvemonth - old , there ’s nothing my Word loves more than cars . Despite my own complete want of involvement in the topic , he can already identify make and mannequin of auto from across the street with unearthly truth , spurred on by his growing collection of Matchbox and Hot Wheels .
But as we ’ve had to excuse to him , we still do n’t live if he ’ll be ever to drive one himself . The brain tumor that he was born with left him with stunted vision , in particular in one eye , with petty hope of betterment .
That ’s why one startup’sCES pitch this yearpromising apair of prototype impudent glassesthat couldgrant “ stack for blind people”caught me off guard . compulsive to see if it could really be genuine , I had a new docket for my week in Las Vegas ; to set about to reinvigorate my own notion that technical school advancements are still capable of transforming lifetime — and rediscover Leslie Townes Hope for my Word ’s future .
A hopeful prototype
Our 4 - class sometime son was abide with a very rarified pituitary brain tumor , known as a craniopharyngioma . When it was expose at 10 months old , the tumor was push up against his optic mettle and choking his pituitary gland . That meant a lack of normal hormone function that verify basic bodily functions like thirst , growth , Cortef production , and thyroid function — as well as a loss of imaginativeness .
Our human beings break apart around us as we attempted to project the steps forward , and more importantly , his futurity . It was n’t a malignant cancer , and it seldom result in loss of animation . But in terms of quality of life , we ’d discover enough horror stories to keep us up at night .
But do n’t interest — I promised a report about Bob Hope , and that ’s what this is .
My first thought upon seeing the caller ’s slant in my inbox were of my own family unit — my female parent with AMD ( Age - tie in Macular Degeneration ) and also my Word , who experienced loss of vision from his brain tumor .
So , there I was , wading through the ocean of mass in Eureka Park , the Wild West of CES , attempting to find a modest cubicle for a inauguration that went by the strange name , Soliddd . The company was there prove off its prototype overbold glasses , know as SolidddVision , a bit of technology that aims to retrieve passel to people with low - vision conditions , including macular degeneration . The claim is huge : think of it like hearing aids for your center . Or , according to its ambitious CEO , Neal Weinstock , “ commit sight to the unsighted . ”
As a kid , it ’s piteous vision that affect our Word ’s daily life most . Despite being tumour - gratis sincehis miraculous surgeryin 2023 , he still ask daily supplementary internal secretion replacements and experience poor visual modality in one of his eyes . You ’d never hump it from his attitude on spirit , but he ’s been patching one middle for four hours a day for most of his life story , and deficiency of vision affects lots of daily tike activities , like toy fell - and - seek or being able to spot an airplane in the sky .
But again , hope .
I tried on the delicate pair of epitome glasses . At this stage , they feel less like a couplet of glass and more like a small headset . The engineering behind them , though , has the potential to be downright revolutionary . The frames have two cameras level out to enamor the world and two pointing in to calibrate to the movement of your eyes .
The provender from the exterior television camera image is then projected into the micro display on the genus Lens — but not just once . The lens in reality has an regalia of displays on it , all show the same image . What the founder and CEO of the ship’s company discover was that the eye could be tricked into piecing this array of high - result images together into a undivided image .
Weinstock is an engineer with a background in 3D work , and the early prototypes of the SolidddVision were actually an example of autostereoscopic , or Methedrine - free 3D. But after working with Rich Muller , a physicist at University of California , Berkeley , he amount upon the realization that there was an software for bushel vision .
“ What the brain makes of these multiple range of a function is something that people in electronic computer scientific discipline grok better than ophthalmologists , ” Weinstock told me . “ First of all , the ophthalmologists think that the resolution in these far neighborhood of the eye is so low compared to the fovea . But everyone knows that your iPhone or Samsung headphone are putting together multiple images from separate cameras and constructing better acuteness in term of a somebody ’s vision . That ’s what the head does . ”
The technology allow the learning ability to do with visual sensation what it ’s always done .
speech sound manufacturers had in reality unknowingly mimicked the operation of the brainiac , and now that understanding is being reverse - engineered . By create an raiment of Maxwellian displays , also get it on as retina - project displays , Soliddd can shoot for a pinhole light through the raw lens of the eye without engaging the concenter chemical mechanism , as Weinstock explain .
The brainpower does what it ’s always done — take the vision from your left heart and your veracious center and add them together to create the single clean figure . With SolidddVision , the brain is take this regalia of images from the electron lens and contrive them to the entirety of the retina — and ego - selecting to create a dead in - focus image .
“ We divide the content coming in from the camera into an raiment of all the same image , which goes through the lens system and delivers to the eye in gross focusing — directly to the retina , ” the chairman of Soliddd , Derek Myers , explain to me . “ Those ocular nerves are then capable of reading that and constructing a undivided figure of speech — in arrant direction . Therefore eliminating the domain of the heart that are degenerative . ”
Although endure the glass myself did n’t forthwith give me perfect imagination , I could see what he was saying . Peering through the prism of silver screen , and after a couple of humble adjustments , I was , indeed , see them as a single image . And with that , a spark of hope .
Early tests are promising
Soliddd say it ’s already work with early patients with conditions such as AMD ( Age - related Macular Degeneration ) and even coronary dystrophy , which can affect much young people . One early affected role is just 19 , and after using the prototype glasses , reported fully reinstate central visual modality .
The frame ingredient is important , of course , which Soliddd admitted . After all , if a pair of glasses was inconvenient , uncomfortable , or socially noticeable , people would be far less likely to adopt them into their casual lives . Soliddd says it will be do good from all the advancement happen in the wider industry around thickset form broker , which remains one of the biggest hurdle to adoption of smart chalk . We ’ve all see the success of glass like the Ray - Ban Meta smart glasses , and much of that has to do with form factor .
I was shown interpretation of what the fellowship expects the consumer version of this mathematical product to look like , though , and they certainly seemed promising .
Watch this simulation of how SolidddVision glasses correct vision for macular degeneration.pic.twitter.com/HOoq7DhsHg
& mdash ; Soliddd Corp. ( @SolidddCorp)December 23 , 2024
The party is considering the total production package too , include the resolution and image calibre — as well as ergonomics , privacy , and security concerns . All things that matter quite a minute when you ’re augmenting one ’s imagination .
Perhaps even more exciting , though , Myers explained that future update to the product could include a more OK - tuned resolution for the specific mapping of a patient ’s individual retina . This could be important for someone like our son , who lack peripheral vision on one side of his oculus .
As he explain these things , I could n’t help but cogitate of my son — perhaps in his teenager or 20s — and what his lifetime would be like . Do n’t get me incorrect — on the other side of his operating theatre , I have so much Leslie Townes Hope and optimism for his futurity . And yet , what would technology in its infancy today would be full matured in 10 or 20 year ? It ’d be disingenuous not to hope , especially since we ’ve gain so much from advances in technology that help in his own treatment .
His brain OR , which was successfully completed entirely through his nasal cavity , used modern technology and techniques that never would have been potential a few decades ago . That ’s because of endoscope television camera and tiny legal document , yes . But the first time the OR had been done on a child of his age was only four years in the first place by the same operating surgeon , who used a 3-D - printed skull and practical reality to ensure the surgery could be completed .
In our son ’s case , the result was a clean resection of the tumor with as minimal an impact as possible . On one hand — a tried - and - true miracle . On the other , more proof that advances in engineering really domatter .
A not-so-distant future
Soliddd is currently fundraising , but it already has plans to put out a consumer product in the skinny future tense , as early as the first quarter of next yr .
But let me exonerated : As of now , I do n’t know for sure that something like Soliddd could serve my son ’s visual sense . He may have terms to his actual optic nervus from the tumor , which is all different from retinal deterioration . Furthermore , this first variation of smart crank may only have a few hours of barrage fire life-time , designed for limited , at - home exercise .
But visual deficits that could benefit from such glasses flow deep in my family . My female parent has AMD , and my nephew may have some shape of retinal damage as well . AMD is thought to be a genetic precondition that can be passed down multiplication to generation . Who knows — it may even be something I have to experience at some point , and is for sure therefore possible to pass on to our children .
As I ’ve find in my female parent ’s own conflict with AMD , there ’s no light cure for the disease .
As I described my Word ’s condition to another Soliddd example , he give me a eff grin .
“ I ca n’t tell you how many people have say that come in through here . You do the business enterprise conversation , and then it ’s my mom , my dad , my uncle , my grandpa . ”
As I ’ve watch in my mother ’s own struggle with AMD , there ’s no easy cure for the disease . It tends to progress over fourth dimension , and the best treatments we have now can only desire to slow the deterioration of the retina . engineering like Soliddd provides an alternate solution . But for me , it ’s less that Soliddd ’s specific answer is the end - all - be - all . It ’s that CES and the technical school world at large are full of ideas just like this . A wise walking cane with GPS and AI built into it for the unsighted , sophisticated smart audition assist , and even an at - domicile AI stethoscope .
I ’m not one to rely all my hope for the future in technical advancement , but I walk away from CES this year dropping the skepticism and reigniting my mother wit of optimism about the potentially life - changing technology that is currently in evolution — and could be just a few years away .
Maybe someday , it could even mean that our Word start to live his dream of drive a gondola . I have more Leslie Townes Hope today than ever .
