DRIVING GLASSES
Low vision is vision that cannot be corrected with regular glasses or contact lenses. It affects millions and can be caused by a number of different diseases. For most people, low vision means they can't get a driver's license or do daily activities like reading the newspaper. Now, advances that let people with low vision get their lives, and their eyes, back.
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When it's story time with her two sons, Lauren Holt can see all she needs to see.
But for years, Lauren couldn't drive her sons where they needed to go. Her eye problems make it impossible, even with glasses, to get her vision to 20/40 -- the vision needed to drive legally.
Lauren Holt
Has low vision
"I used to have to do Internet shopping, or my husband would go on Sundays and get the groceries, or I could walk to the market, but I couldn't get many things."
Now, Lauren has a new lease on life, thanks to these telescopic glasses.
Lauren Holt
"99.9 percent of the time when I drive, I just look through the carrier lenses themselves, and then I just use the scope when I'm driving to see road signs."
Eli Peli, O.D.
Vision Researcher
Harvard Medical School/Schepens Eye Institute
Boston, MA
"Spotting the traffic light from a large enough distance, if the road is open, and for tasks like this, they need sharper vision."
Still, the glasses have one major problem.
Eli Peli, O.D.
"If you're looking at a road sign, then it blocks part of the road view."
That's why Doctor Peli is developing the next level of telescopic lens.
Eli Peli, O.D.
"Rather than blocking the view, it will move that view of the magnified telescope up towards the sky."
Additionally, he says telescopic lenses in the future will embed the telescope into the regular. For Lauren, the current version has given her a freedom she never had.
Lauren Holt
"It was scary, and it was liberating, and it was exciting at the same time."
Now, there's nothing to stop her from going where she needs to.
The glasses Lauren uses are currently available and cost between $1,000 and $2,000. The glasses only allow her to drive during daylight hours. Doctor Peli expects the new and more advanced version of glasses to be ready in about five years.
BACKGROUND: About 14 million Americans have low vision. Low vision is a significant reduction of visual function that cannot be fully corrected by ordinary glasses, contact lenses, medical treatment and/or surgery. Low vision affects people of all ages. It affects daily activities like reading, cooking, taking medication and watching television. People with severe low vision may be classified as partially sighted and/or legally blind.
Low vision can include a loss of central vision from macular degeneration or optic atrophy, scattered dark patches caused by diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma or retinal detachment, tunnel vision that may be caused by glaucoma or stroke, or contrast loss as may be caused by cataracts or corneal disease. Other conditions causing low vision may have the person seeing blurred or distorted objects. People with low vision often are unable to drive.
TELESCOPIC GLASSES: Commercially available telescopic glasses can help some people with low vision drive legally. The glasses are intended for people who have enough vision that they can maintain the car on the road, maintain the distance of the car ahead of them, spot a pedestrian on the roadway, see other cars, and do any necessary maneuvers but who are unable to see images where sharp vision is needed. This can include reading road signs or detecting the color on a traffic light. For these individuals, the telescopic glasses may help. Most of the driving is done using the regular lens, but when they have to read a sign or see a light, they tip their head and look through the bioptic lens mounted on one side. This is only about 5 percent of the time they are driving. The glasses are permitted to use while driving in 34 states.
THE NEXT STEP: The bioptic lenses that are currently available have a bulky lens protruding from one side of the glasses. The telescopic glasses cost between $1,000 and $2,000. Because of their appearance, people may be hesitant to use them. For this reason, Eli Peli, O.D., of the Schepens Eye Institute in Boston, is working on developing a lens that has the telescope embedded in the lens.
Dr. Peli also says the traditional telescopic lenses have a major problem. When the person looks through the lens, part of their view of the road become blocked. A new lens Dr. Peli is developing moves the view of the magnified telescope towards the sky where it does not block the road view and the person is able to continue monitoring the road. Dr. Peli says it may take as long as five years before the lens has been developed and manufactured for the market.
Rich Godfrey
Volunteer Patient Liason
Schepens Eye Research Institute
20 Staniford Street
Boston, MA 02114
(617) 912-2569
Copyright © 2004 Ivanhoe Broadcast News, Inc.
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