Stanford Researchers Plan to Replace Progressive Lenses With 'Autofocals'

Stanford Researchers Plan to Supervene upon Progressive Lenses With 'Autofocals'

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When the call went out for volunteers to participate in a study on a new technology that could somewhen improve on and replace progressive lenses, I was happy to sign up. Like every human over 50 years sometime, my optics don't accommodate as well equally they used to. As we age, our eyes' lenses stiffen, and nosotros tin can either come across near or far, simply can't suit between them without the help of reading glasses, progressive lenses, or surgical monovision, depending on whether you are farsighted (Hyperopia) or nearsighted (Myopia).

Fifty-fifty if y'all have 20/twenty vision at a distance, as you age yous'll need reading spectacles to focus on a nearby volume. None of the current solutions are great, and progressives are specially limiting since whatsoever given distance is only in focus in office of your field of view. When wearing mine, I'chiliad ofttimes having to look up or downward to focus on a detail object.

Restoring Your Eyes' Ability to Autofocus

The current headset is quite a contraption but advances in AR wearables will allow for much more practical versions over time Researchers working with Professor Gordon Wetzstein in the Computational Imaging lab at Stanford think they accept an answer. Using a combination of middle tracking and an automatically adjusting external focus mechanism, whatever you look at through their Autofocals prototype is in focus. Essentially the device uses technology to mimic our eyes' natural ability to focus at virtually any distance, which nosotros lose with age. The current enquiry prototype of Autofocals that project lead Nitish Padmanaban and young man team member Robert Konrad used to examination me is a big and somewhat unwieldy device. But if the concept proves out, information technology will only exist a affair of time before it could become applied.

The tests involve an elaborate (and somewhat exhausting) series of eye chart reading exercises. I performed them with both my progressive lens glasses and using the team'due south Autofocals device. One of the first things I noticed is that unlike with progressives, the Autofocals don't require me to shift my gaze up and down to focus nigh and far. In the device's current implementation, it has a tiny delay, but fifty-fifty in its paradigm form information technology isn't terrible.

Autofocals Build on Heart Tracking, Depth Photographic camera

The Autofocals arrangement relies on several components. An heart tracker lets the system know where you're looking. Then a depth photographic camera estimates the altitude of whatever is in that direction. Finally, the liquid-filled lenses are electrically adjusted to focus at that altitude. Since the system is pre-calibrated to the prescription of the person using it ahead of time, the refocusing provides a personalized optical correction optimized for the wearer and the distance.

For VR use, some of the same team are working on new display technologies that are focus invariant, to solve a similar issue What'southward exciting to me about this approach is that eye tracking and depth cameras are both key elements of the future of vision wearables already, whether for AR or VR. Then they will be improving in operation and decreasing in size and price over the coming years. Similarly, there are a number of emerging technologies aiming to make adjustable focus lenses faster and higher quality. In one case all these come together, Autofocals would exist a logical extension.

Autofocals Outperform Monovision, Progressive Lenses

I don't know what my personal results were, just the overall group of 24 of united states of america (all anile from 51 to 81) had improved visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and ability to match letters at almost distances compared with either monovision or progressive lenses (the two types of subjects tested). That was accomplished without sacrificing distance vision. In addition to making the current solution more than practical, the team is interested in evolving it to go easier to calibrate, or perhaps self-calibrating.

The team will be presenting its work at SIGGRAPH in August, too equally allowing participants to try out the Autofocals image for themselves. This effort is only one of many aimed at using tech to ameliorate vision, but information technology is certainly ane of the most broadly applicable.

[Banner Image Credit: Stanistani/Wikimedia Commons]