NEW YORK, Oct 5: Can you believe that using the latest technology an iPhone app (application) cab help improve your eyesight!
The eye lens companies are designing a host of solutions to aid glasses wearers, including futuristic lenses and even an iPhone app that developers say can help people wean themselves off glasses says a news report.
In an exclusive report the Los Angeles Times said on Saturday one area of focus has been on reducing eyestrain for people who spend several hours a day staring at computers, tablets and smartphones. Many optometrists believe the light emitted from such devices could damage a viewer’s eyesight over time, although that hasn’t been conclusively proven.
Still, lens companies are rolling out a slew of new lenses that they say will help ward off those potentially harmful effects.
“Why would you take the risk? Let the science unfold and let us protect ourselves as it’s unfolding,” Don Oakley, president of VSP Optics Group was quoted by the LAT , which this year introduced its Unity with BluTech lenses at 30,000 eye doctor offices in the US.
BluTech lenses are infused with melanin, a natural pigment found in the iris of the eye, to help filter out high-energy blue light and UVA/UVB radiation while allowing what Oakley called “innocuous” light to pass through.
The melanin gives BluTech lenses a yellowish hue, and is available for any prescription. Other companies produce lenses with blue-light filtering coatings.
Oakley said BluTech lenses reduce eyestrain and fatigue from long hours spent in front of the computer. Adding BluTech lenses to a pair of glasses is typically less than $100; they can be worn indoors and outdoors and can also be added to non-prescription glasses.
He cautioned that BluTech “doesn’t prevent anything per se but it protects.”
Although many eye doctors think all that time staring at your smartphone is bad for your eyes, one firm is encouraging people to use mobile devices to improve their vision.
GlassesOff Inc. is gearing up to launch an iPhone app this year that it claims can enhance near-vision sharpness. The New York company contends that human vision is based on two main factors: the quality of an image captured by the eyes and the image-processing capabilities of the brain as it interprets the image.
By spending 12 to 15 minutes a day, three times a week for three months completing a game-like program, GlassesOff says, a user can improve the image-processing function by teaching the brain to better interpret blurred images.
The app is tailored for each individual and adapts according to his or her progress; the goal is to wean a viewer off reading glasses altogether.
”It’s relevant to practically any person that I know,” said Nimrod Madar, chief executive of GlassesOff. “We can empower people to self-improve their vision condition, so you’re no longer depending on external intermediates.”
The notion that people can improve their eyesight through eye exercises has drawn scepticism from some optometrists and ophthalmologists.
But in a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, the scientists behind GlassesOff said participants in a study at UC Berkeley showed a nearly 10-year improvement in eye age. That enabled them to be able to see more than two lines further down an eye chart and achieve normal or near-normal visual performance.
