Braille reading contact lenses for the visually impaired

An advanced contact lens developed by Professor Zeev Zalevsky of Bar-Ilan University in Israel will allow the blind to read Braille.

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The new glasses, which are used like regular contact lenses, are equipped with electrodes that receive signals from a small camera held in the hand or mounted on the glasses. When a user points the camera at an object, the device translates the image into an electronic braille and the eye will stimulate the retina. "It's like you read Braille, but not with your fingertips but with your eyes," explains Zalevsky.

In our view, we can decode an image by more points than the braille system and use the glass to stimulate the surface of the retina. Unlike Braille, which depends on the location of the 6 points to convey information to the reader, the sensor in the retina is sensitive to tactile stimulation 600 times greater than the sensation of the fingertips.

This type of special contact lens has not been tested in humans yet, but animal tests show the device has helped them overcome obstacles in dark environments. "Our solution can help blind people read or navigate in 3D, meaning you can cross the road without fear of an accident," Zalevsky said. Learning how to identify new glasses is the same way blind people learn braille. Zalevsky is also working on a similar system for the deaf.