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TECHNOLOGY Saturday 25 February 2017
Sharp vision: New glasses help the legally blind see

MICHAEL LIEDTKE the blind “Star Trek” char-
AP Technology Writer acter Geordi La Forge ,
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — played by LeVar Burton.
Jeff Regan was born with The third-generation mod-
underdeveloped optic el lets wearers magnify the
nerves and had spent most video feed up to 24 times,
of his life in a blur. Then four compared to just 14 times
years ago, he donned an in earlier models. There’s a
unwieldy headset made hand control for adjusting
by a Toronto company brightness and contrast.
called eSight. The new glasses also come
Suddenly, Regan could with a more powerful high-
read a newspaper while definition camera.
eating breakfast and ESight believes that about
make out the faces of his 200 million people world-
co-workers from across the wide with visual acuity of
room. He’s been able to 20/70 to 20/1200 could
attend plays and watch be potential candidates
what’s happening on for its glasses. That num-
stage, without having to ber includes people with
guess why people around a variety of disabling eye
him were laughing. conditions such as macu-
“These glasses have made lar degeneration, diabetic
my life so much better,” In this photo taken Thursday, Feb. 2, 2017, eSight CEO and President Brian Mech holds up a pair retinopathy, ocular albi-
said Regan, 48, a Cana- electronic glasses at Union Square San Francisco. The glasses enable the legally blind to see. nism, Stargardt’s disease,
dian engineer who lives in Associated Press or, like Regan, optic nerve
London, Ontario. won’t help people with dence of their benefits. The the latest improvements hypoplasia.
The headsets from eSight total blindness, they could company is funding clinical might help insurers over- So far, though, the com-
transmit images from a still be a huge deal for the trials to provide that proof. come their short-sighted pany has sold only about
forward-facing camera to millions of peoples whose The headsets also carry an view of his product. Mech 1,000 headsets, despite
small internal screens — vision is so impaired that it eye-popping price tag. The argues that it would be the testimonials of wearers
one for each eye — in a can’t be corrected with or- latest version of the glasses, more cost-effective for in- who’ve become true be-
way that beams the video dinary lenses. released just last week, sells surers to pay for the head- lievers. Take, for instance,
into the wearer’s periph- EYE TEST for about $10,000. While sets, even in part, than to Yvonne Felix, an artist who
eral vision. That turns out But eSight still needs to that’s $5,000 less than its cover more expensive sur- now works as an advocate
to be all that some people clear a few minor hurdles. predecessor, it’s still a lot gical procedures that may for eSight after seeing the
with limited vision, even le- Among them: proving the for people who often have restore some sight to the vi- previously indistinguishable
gal blindness, need to see glasses are safe and effec- trouble getting high-paying sually impaired. faces of her husband and
things they never could tive for the legally blind. jobs because they can’t NEW GLASSES two sons for the first time via
before. That’s because While eSight’s headsets see. Insurers won’t cover The latest version of its glasses. Others, ranging
many visual impairments don’t require the approval the cost; they consider the ESight’s technology, built from kids to senior citizens,
degrade central vision of health regulators — they glasses an “assistive” tech- with investments of $32 mil- have worn the gadgets to
while leaving peripheral vi- fall into the same low-risk nology similar to hearing lion over the past decade, golf, watch football or just
sion largely intact. category as dental floss aids. is a gadget that vaguely perform daily tasks such as
Although eSight’s glasses — there’s not yet firm evi- ESight CEO Brian Mech said resembles the visor worn by reading nutrition labels.q

India police arrest cheap

mobile maker on fraud charges

LUCKNOW, India (AP) -- The ered by the Indian media. pees.
director of an Indian com- The company’s website on In their complaint, Ayam
pany that claimed it was which pre-orders were tak- Enterprises said they had
selling the world’s cheap- en crashed with huge num- agreed to distribute the
est smartphone was ar- bers of people trying to ac- phones and had paid Ring-
rested Thursday on fraud cess it to book a phone. ing Bells the money in ad-
charges, police said Friday. Many customers who vance.
Mohit Goel was arrested bought the phone said at Ringing Bells had failed to
in the New Delhi suburb the time that they were supply handsets or return
of Ghaziabad following a happy with the sleek fea- the money to the distribu- In this July 7, 2016 file photo, Mohit Goel, Director of Indian
complaint that his com- tures of the handset. tor despite several remind- company Ringing Bells Pvt. Ltd. shows Freedom 251 smart-
pany Ringing Bells had not Police spokesman Rahul ers, police said. phones at a press conference in New Delhi, India.
supplied the handsets that Srivastava said Friday that However, Goel’s company Associated Press
a phone distribution com- the arrest was made after ran into troubles when some
pany had paid for. the distribution company, 30,000 customers paid for
The launch of the smart- Ayam Enterprises, filed a the phone on Ringing Bells’ Financial frauds are com- the cheap smartphone
phone called “Free- complaint that it had paid online site and were prom- mon in India with people and enthusiasm for Goel’s
dom251” and priced at Goel 3 million rupees, but ised delivery of the hand- falling victim to scams. phone faded after sup-
rupees 251 ($3.70) in Feb- had received handsets set by June - a promise the Mobile phone industry an- plies stopped.q
ruary 2016 was widely cov- worth only 1.3 million ru- company failed to meet. alysts were skeptical about