A device developed by researchers at the Boston-based Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary's Schepens Eye Research Institute could help patients with limited vision avoid collisions with walls and obstacles.
The pocket-sized device attaches to the patient's clothing and emits a warning sound when the patient is walking too near an object he or she could run into. Patients using the alert device were shown to experience 37 percent fewer collisions than those not using it. The device could largely serve patients with peripheral vision loss or other forms of limited vision, according to a news release.
It may also have potential to help completely blind individuals by detecting when they could run into high-level objects that a walking stick might not detect, the researchers found. Their results, published in the journal Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, suggests future developments for rehabilitation approaches for those with limited or lost vision, a still-developing field, according to the news release.
Massachusetts Eye and Ear is a vision and hearing clinic that specializes in diseases of the head and neck. It merged with Schepens Eye Research Institute in 2011.