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Hope for Patients with Low vision

For patients with eyesight as poor as 20/800, eyeglasses or contact lenses are sometimes not enough. Our optometrists are evaluating a number of low vision devices that help patients, many of whom are legally blind, see to drive a car, read a newspaper or recognize faces. Some of the devices offered include special magnifiers, high-powered lenses, virtual reality systems, and other optical devices.

Low vision can hamper even the most basic of daily activities, reading the newspaper, playing the piano, writing a check, preparing meals, or even knitting a sweater. The Emory Eye Center's Low Vision Clinic offers special help for individuals with reduced vision that neither surgery, medical treatment nor the best standard optical remedies can correct. The clinic has helped children with hereditary conditions, individuals who want to remain in the workplace, and older adults who want to maintain independent lives.

The Low Vision Clinic is one of a few clinical sites in the U.S. developing the most advanced vision assisting devices available on the market. The clinic helps people of any age who are visually impaired and have only partial sight due to cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, detached retina, or stroke.

The Low Vision Clinic's specialists offer a wide range of magnifiers, high-powered microscope lenses, virtual reality systems, special contact lenses, and other optical devices. They are committed to helping each patient meet his or her visual goals, keeping in mind budget and lifestyle.

The Low Vision Clinic is investigating a number of new devices, including these popular systems available only at a few centers in the U.S.:

Bioptic telescope lenses. This device fits onto a standard pair of glasses and is very light and portable. It works like a self-focusing camera, only more precise. It magnifies distant images to four times normal size, and for close-range objects, magnifies to five times normal size.
Digital viewing system. This virtual reality system can magnify images up to 24 times normal size. It is portable and self-focusing and provides distance and close-up vision in one system. The user can wear it like a virtual reality helmet to view magnified images on a small screen in front of each eye or place it into a reading stand over a book or newspaper and view magnified images on a standard TV screen.
Electronic magnifier mouse. This hand-held electronic magnifier "mouse" has a tiny camera inside that projects magnified images onto a TV screen. It can magnify images up to 24 times normal size. Patients can use it on flat or curved surfaces, such as books and medication labels. It also can be attached to the digital viewing system to dramatically increase image size.

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