New iPhone app could delay need for reading glasses

A smart phone app could delay the need for reading glasses in older people by teaching the brain to process blurred images.

GlassesOff, to be launched on the iPhone next year, could allow people to keep reading as normal beyond the age where they could otherwise have needed glasses, its developers said.

It works by training the mind to translate blurry images into clear ones, to compensate for the deterioration of the eyes which prevents us focusing on nearby objects.

Uri Polat, of Tel Aviv University in Israel and co-founder of Ucansi, the company which designed the software, told the New Scientist magazine: "We're using the brain as glasses."

When we reach our fifties the lenses in our eyes to become less supple, meaning it is harder for them to focus on objects that are close to us.

In the new app, groups of blurry lines known as Gabor patches appear at several points across the screen and the user must identify when one appears in the centre.

After using the app 40 times, users with an average age of 51 were able to read two lines lower on an optical chart held 40cm from their face – a reduction in "eye age" from 50.5 to 41.9 years.

They were also able to read a page of the New York Times by an average of 5.3 minutes, from a time of more than 12 minutes before using the app.

The app is expected to cost about £60 for a three-month training programme, followed by a small monthly top-up fee for less regular "maintenance" exercises.

Lee Duffner, an eye doctor based in Hollywood, said the technology could put off the need for older people to buy reading glasses.


/The Telegraph/