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MIAMI (AFP) – A 60-year-old US grandmother, blind for nearly a decade, has recovered her sight after surgeons implanted a tooth in her eye as a base to hold a tiny plastic lens, her doctors said Wednesday.

Sharron “Kay” Thornton, from the southern US state of Mississippi, lost her sight in 2000 when she came down with a case of Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a rare disease that scarred her cornea, according to the University of Miami’s Bascom Palmer Eye Institute.

For patients whose bodies reject a transplanted or artificial cornea, this procedure “implants the patient’s tooth in the eye to anchor a prosthetic lens and restore vision,” said Thornton’s surgeon Victor Perez.

In the procedure — which was pioneered in Italy but was a first in the United States — the medical team extracted Thornton’s canine or “eyetooth” and surrounding bone, shaved and sculpted it, and drilled a hole into it to insert an optical cylinder lens.

“We take sight for granted, not realizing that it can be lost at any moment,” the grateful patient said. “This truly is a miracle.”

She said people should imagine what it is like “if you could keep your eyes closed just for one week… it’s amazing what you see when you open your eyes again.”

The tooth and the lens were implanted under the patient’s skin in the cheek or shoulder for two months so they could bond, then they were carefully implanted in the center of the eye after a series of procedures to prepare the socket.

“A hole is made in the mucosa for the prosthetic lens, which protrudes slightly from the eye and enables light to re-enter the eye allowing the patient to see once again,” read an Eye Institute statement.

Following a series of operations, medical personnel removed the bandages from Thornton’s eyes two weeks ago.

She was able to recognize objects and faces a few hours later, and two weeks later she was able to read newspapers, the Eye Institute said.

“I’m looking forward to seeing my seven youngest grandchildren for the first time,” said Thornton.

Through the work of (the) team, patients in the United States now have access to this complex surgical technique, which has been available only in a limited number of centers in Europe and Asia,” said Eduardo Alfonso, chairman of Bascom Palmer Eye Institute.

Source for complete article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090917/ts_alt_afp/healthresearchuseye

A surprising number of kids fail their eye exams and that could be a sign of serious problems. Dr. Bruce Rosenthal explains the warning signs and also suggest solutions for your children.

He also promotes Enhanced Vision’s Amigo as a great solution for your children’s low vision and how the device can help in the classroom.

Please click this link to view the clip:  http://wcbstv.com/video/?id=91151@wcbs.dayport.com&cid=4

Bristol/Hong Kong-based Ocean Blue Software, a specialist digital TV software house, has developed “talking” digital TV technology for set top boxes and televisions that could potentially benefit millions of people who are blind, visually impaired, deaf, severely dyslexic, and elderly.

The technology, produced in conjunction with the The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) and other digital technology companies, works by converting on-screen based text menus into speech output. Consumers will be able control how the audio information is spoken to them, and have the ability to change the level of speech and the language through a customizable interface.

Developers are optimistic that the new technology will improve the quality of life of 8 million individuals living with disabilities in the UK, and even more around the world.

Ocean Blue Software also recently produced Nexus TVTM, a digital technology system with health care features that utilizes a television with a set top box and a remote control. The system is capable of providing automatic alerts reminding users which medication to take, and when. Users will also be able to order repeat prescriptions by scanning a barcode with the remote control and then forward it to their pharmacist. Individuals with limited mobility, will be able to shop local stores and markets through the Nexus TVTM network and have items delivered to their home.

“This is about exploiting technology to give the elderly and vulnerable every possible comfort and security where they most want it - in their own homes,” said Ken Helps, CEO of Ocean Blue Software, in a company press release. “At the same time, it addresses one of the greatest challenges for the British economy – how to finance support for an ageing population.”

Source for complete article: http://www.examiner.com/x-18867-NY-Disability-Examiner~y2009m9d2-Digital-TV-software-provides-talking-menus-for-the-visually-impaired-deaf-and-elderly

For people who are blind or visually impaired, orientation in unknown environments is a special challenge. A navigation system, however, can help to support orientation skills. Researchers at the University of Stuttgart are drawing information together for blind and visually impaired students that can be accessed with a precise mobile navigation device.

 This device combines local sensor information with data from environment models. En route to a selected destination, the user can get information acoustically or in Braille. Thereby, the model and sensor data are compared continuously. This information includes navigational options and other suggestions relevant to blind students.

Navigation within the large and complex university buildings can be a time-consuming challenge. To support people with visually impairments, the team built digital hierarchical 2D-environment models of the campus of the University of Stuttgart and of the SZS building of the University of Karlsruhe. These models include augmented information and important landmarks, such as doors and elevator switches, equipped with RFID-Tags.

Using the so-called TANIA system (Tactile-Acoustical Navigation and Information Assistant), also developed within the Visualization and Interactive Systems Group, the blind user can access information about their current position and other mapped objects in the vicinity.

The system can provide navigation options and augmented information, such as names of staff members or contact data. All information can be provided acoustically or in Braille as the individual passes the corresponding real or virtual spaces. In general, any location-based text information can be integrated, such as the office hours of university lecturers, opening hours of the library, the student council offices, or the cafeteria, or other student-specific information that is especially relevant for those new to the university.

Source for complete article: http://www.rehacare.de/cipp/md_rehacare/custom/pub/content,lang,2/oid,22873/ticket,g_u_e_s_t/~/Enhanced_Orientation_for_the_Blind_and_Visually_Impaired.html

Raised domes alert blind people they’ve reached end of sidewalk
Pedestrian walkways in the Fargo-Moorhead metropolitan area are becoming more accessible for people with visual impairments.

Pedestrian walkways in the Fargo-Moorhead metropolitan area are becoming more accessible for people with visual impairments.

As cities make street improvements, they’re required to meet a new Americans with Disabilities Act requirement, said Tom Trowbridge, Moorhead’s assistant city engineer. The improved sidewalks have what are called truncated domes, or raised circles on the pavement that you can feel with your feet to alert blind people they’ve reached the end of the sidewalk.

The domes also are painted a bright color – either yellow or red – so people with slight visual impairments may be able to see the contrast.

“It’s a warning that you’re leaving a safe walk environment and entering a zone where vehicles also travel,” Trowbridge said.

Fargo, West Fargo and Moorhead are adding these improvements while making other repairs, such as the project on Moorhead’s Eighth Street.

“As you do projects, you have to incorporate those changes,” Trowbridge said.

Fargo has been adding the truncated domes in projects for three or four years, said Jeremy Gorden, traffic engineer. Twelfth Avenue North will have the new features when it is completed, he said.

Source for complete article: http://ow.ly/npFN

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Neuroscientist Paul Bach-y-Rita hypothesized in the 1960s that “we see with our brains not our eyes.” Now, a new device trades on that thinking and aims to partially restore the experience of vision for the blind and visually impaired by relying on the nerves on the tongue’s surface to send light signals to the brain.

Legal blindness is defined by U.S. law as vision that is 20/200 or worse, or has a field of view that is less than 20 degrees in diameter. The condition afflicts more than one million Americans over the age of 40, according to the National Institutes of Health. Adult vision loss costs the country about $51.4 billion per year.

About two million optic nerves are required to transmit visual signals from the retina—the portion of the eye where light information is decoded or translated into nerve pulses—to the brain’s primary visual cortex. With BrainPort, the device being developed by neuroscientists at Middleton, Wisc.–based Wicab, Inc. (a company co-founded by the late Back-y-Rita), visual data are collected through a small digital video camera about 1.5 centimeters in diameter that sits in the center of a pair of sunglasses worn by the user. Bypassing the eyes, the data are transmitted to a handheld base unit, which is a little larger than a cell phone. This unit houses such features as zoom control, light settings and shock intensity levels as well as a central processing unit (CPU), which converts the digital signal into electrical pulses—replacing the function of the retina.

From the CPU, the signals are sent to the tongue via a “lollipop,” an electrode array about nine square centimeters that sits directly on the tongue. Each electrode corresponds to a set of pixels. White pixels yield a strong electrical pulse, whereas black pixels translate into no signal. Densely packed nerves at the tongue surface receive the incoming electrical signals, which feel a little like Pop Rocks or champagne bubbles to the user…

Source for complete article: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=device-lets-blind-see-with-tongues

MVP Kenny Johar was recently awarded the Microsoft MVP Award, for his contributions towards Internet Explorer. He has carved out a successful IT career by helping to make technology, more accessible to Australia’s visually impaired. News of his Award, was also picked up by The Australian newspaper and you can read an excerpt of the interview below.

Kenny was diagnosed with problems to his eyesight during the final years of high school, and had intended to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a doctor. The news that he had retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative sight condition, came as a crushing blow.

“It’s like a domino effect,” he said. “When I started there were lots of obstacles for people with vision impairment to get into the IT industry, and I take a huge sense of achievement from the fact I am opening a floodgate for others to follow”.

“I had strong aspirations to be a neurologist,” he recalled. “I was very interested in the human brain, and then I learned that no matter how hard I worked I was never going to be able to get there, so I had to change the direction of my career”.

Everything changed when he got a laptop computer with a screen reader that allowed the information in programs and on web pages to be read aloud to him.

“Suddenly the world opened up again for me,” he said. “To have something come into my life and give me such a strong ray of hope for the future made me realise how powerful a tool technology was”.

Kenny is now helping to roll out a new software package that will assist vision-impaired people to go online. He remains optimistic that the IT industry will offer more opportunities to blind people. “It’s not about a disability, it’s about your attitude, and I think for people who come after me it’s not going to be a big deal; it won’t be a taboo anymore”.

You can read Kenny’s full interview with The Australian here.

Source for complete article: http://blogs.msdn.com/mvpawardprogram/archive/2009/07/28/australia-recognises-its-first-visually-impaired-mvp.aspx

BLACKSBURG, Va., July 15, 2009 — A student team in the Virginia Tech College of Engineering is providing the blind with an opportunity many never thought possible: The opportunity to drive.

A retrofitted four-wheel dirt buggy developed by the Blind Driver Challenge team from Virginia Tech’s Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory uses laser range finders, an instant voice command interface and a host of other innovative, cutting-edge technology to guide blind drivers as they steer, brake, and accelerate. Although in the early testing stage, the National Federation of the Blind — which spurred the project — considers the vehicle a major breakthrough for independent living of the visually impaired.

“It was great!” said Wes Majerus, of Baltimore, the first blind person to drive the buggy on a closed course at the Virginia Tech campus earlier this summer. Majerus is an access technology specialist with the National Federation of the Blind’s Jernigan Institute in Baltimore, a research and training institute dedicated to developing technologies and services to help the blind achieve independence.

Majerus called his drive a liberating experience, adding that he drove before on Nebraska farm roads with his father as a guide in the passenger seat….

Source for complete article: http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/story.php?relyear=2009&itemno=542