Folks who are diagnosed as blind need not loose heart completly as it is known that many a times such eyes have functional retinas locked behind lenses so clouded they can't see a thing. Scanning laser opthalmoscope (SLO) is the device that helps to point out this behind-the-cloud defect. Over-priced at $100,000, this over-sized diagnostic machine was limited to the medical centers only. The inventor, Elizabeth Goldring, later developed a desktop version for $4,000. But current buzz is that Goldring has come up with a portable unit costing just under $500. It consists of the visual imaging unit itself, along with an attached digital camera providing "the eye" for the portable device. The device, as a whole, is about five inches square and mounts on a flexible tripod. The attached camera sends the live feed it sees through its lens from the seeing machine into a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) which is illuminated by LEDs. This data is then focused into a single point, which travels into the eye of the visually impaired individual to reproduce the associated image as others might see it without the device.

It is remarkable to know that the inventor herself is visually impaired. However this 'visual lack of vision' has deterred Goldring from inventing a portable, compact as well as affordable device that can help visually impaired "see" what everyone else takes for granted.

[TGdaily] And [Igadget]