As people age, their vision deteriorates – this is a universal truth. As time passes, our eyes lose the ability to focus on nearby objects.
There is an app called Glassesoff that promises to help people achieve more than 80 per cent improvement in vision. It achieves this by training the brain to process blurred images, that are a result of the deterioration of near–vision, efficiently.
The company that has created it, Ucansi, claims that the app can help older people get rid of their glasses for at least some time and lets them read without any optical aids for longer than usual.
As people age, the lens of the eye loses its power to focus, resulting in the deterioration of the ability to see objects that are near. They are unable to focus as they used to, and the images that are sent to the visual cortex of the brain to be processed are unfocused. In addition, the processing is slow and very difficult, resulting in blurred images, tired eyes, and a headache.
Uri Polat, of Tel Aviv University and a co–founder of Ucansi, has developed software that trains people to detect patterns called Gabor patches, which are blurry lines created by varying a grey background, and adapt accordingly. The training helps people become better at the task and thereby improve their vision.
In the last three years, the treatment has been tested on more than 100 patients suffering from presbyopia and it was observed that the volunteers were able to read two lines further down in an optical chart post training.
A month’s training will cost $9.99, three months training will cost about $24.99 and there is an option to purchase a year’s subscription too.
