A Screen that Wears Glasses for You

Have you ever dreamed of not wearing your glasses in front of your screen to send an email, text message or simply read the time? We have good news for the millions of people who use corrective lenses. Researchers at MIT Média Lab, in partnership with the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a new display technology that corrects vision defects.

The technology is based on each person’s prescription in order to translate it into algorithms to alter an image. The collected information is then sent to a special filter installed in front of the screen.

The display is a variation of glasses-free 3-D technology. The 3-D display projects slightly different images to the viewer’s left and right eyes, while this vision-correcting display projects slightly different images to different parts of the viewer’s pupil, allowing the screen to adjust the brightness and the resolution of each pixel. Consequently, the image is made clear to the user, with no corrective lenses.

Myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism or presbyopia can be “treated” with this filter. This research offers hope for people with more severe visual distortions.

The research is presented below by researcher Gordon Wetzstein:

The researchers conducted trials on bright colored images. (see the example below). These images were deformed using algorithms and then adapted to each visual distortion. The tests were carried out through digital cameras and touch pads in order to adapt this technology to all existing setups.

The MIT article focuses on correcting vision and the proposed techniques assume that the location of the observer’s eye is fixed or tracked. In fact, each of the envisioned display types provides different challenges. Eye trackers are available today and may be useful in some cases.

Furthermore, a key point needs to be solved:

How to enable multi-screen viewing on the same display, for people with different vision problems?

Researchers are still at the prototype stage, but the use of very high definition pictures could be a solution. Further studies remain to be completed to facilitate simultaneous viewing and consider sales.

Going further:

The research continues… We will keep you posted!