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An expanded Web version of segments seen on CNN When eyeglasses aren't enough, high-tech helps
December 11, 1997
Brooke Hedrick is able to read music with the help of the glasses
Web posted at: 12:01 p.m. EST (1701 GMT)From Reporter Rick Lockridge
ATLANTA (CNN) -- Millions of people, young and old, suffer from vision so poor that ordinary glasses offer little help. The technology that's helping them looks like it could have come right out of a consumer electronics store.
It's not cheap, but the devices help the visually impaired lead a more normal life, says Dr. Ned Witkin of the Emory University Low Vision Clinic in Atlanta.
(111K/10 sec. AIFF or WAV sound)
Even people with extremely poor vision can show tremendous improvement, he told CNN. (
Some examples:
Watch Rick Lockridge's entire report as seen on CNN
2 min. 30 sec. VXtreme video
The high-tech glasses help Frances Bennett live a more comfortable lifestyle
Low vision advances 561K/14 sec./160x120
QuickTime movieFrances Bennett, 79, is almost legally blind because of macular degeneration, an affliction common among older people that causes light-sensing cells in the eye to stop working.
But the Atlanta-area woman still is able to play bridge with her friends every week, thanks to a self-focusing lens mounted atop a pair of telescopic eyeglasses.
Waiting for the glasses to focus slows her down a little, says Bennett. But her card-playing partners all agree the glasses don't hold up their game.
Brooke Hedrick, 13, also from the Atlanta area, has been legally blind since birth from congenital cataracts and glaucoma. But that doesn't prevent her from reading music and playing the clarinet in her school band.
She, too, benefits from the telescopic glasses, which go for about $3,600. They freed her from having to use huge hand-written scores and leave her feeling less self-conscious about her condition.
(Another alternative for low-vision patients is the V-Max, a helmet containing a digital television camera and a monitor that makes the wearer look like a storm trooper from Star Wars but makes you feel as if you are watching a big screen TV.
The V-Max, which is better for reading than the telescopic glasses, has a video input jack, which allows users to watch TV right inside the helmet. Price: $4,000.
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