Star Trek-Like Visor Can Give Sight to the Blind

Whether it be mobile phones and wireless communication, computer tablets, or augmented reality headsets, Star Trek has always had a knack for predicting the future. Now, the reliably prophetic sci-fi show seems to have pre-empted yet another technological advance, one which could give sight to the blind.

In Star Trek: The Next Generation, the U.S.S. Enterprise D’s Chief Engineer is Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge (pictured below). In the show, La Forge, who was born blind, is able to see through a prosthetic device worn across his eyes called a VISOR (an acronym for Visual Instrument and Sensory Organ Replacement, in case you didn’t already know).

A device with similar aesthetics and results – known as eSight 3 – is now a reality, and has been successfully tested by Yvonne Felix, who has such low-level vision that she is considered legally blind. Wearing eSight 3 – which captures live HD video from its forward-facing camera and displays it through an optical prism into the eye – Felix has been given the ability to see the faces of her husband and child for the first time.

“I remember putting them on and looking up and I saw my husband who I’d been married to for eight years and had never seen before,” Felix told CNet’s Lexy Savvides. “And my 2-month-old son, who we had just brought home from the hospital and he was holding him and it was the most beautiful image, like it’s burned in my mind for the rest of my life.”

Felix was not born with low level sight. At the age of 7, she was hit by a car. The incident triggered Stargardt disease, which causes macular degeneration in children. The disease caused Felix to develop a blind spot that obscures 98% of her visual field. Her form of macular degeneration, though, makes her an ideal beneficiary of eSight.

“The beautiful thing is it’s not surgical, it’s not medication, it’s not a drug. So you can just try it on,” says eSight CEO Dr. Brian Mech. He adds that eSight has a 50% chance of working with all sight-impeding health conditions.

The eSight technology is still in development. In future, the company hopes to streamline the headset and improve its resistance to water.