"Seeing machine" for the visually challenged

Visually challenged can now hope to 'see' their favourite things through a camera!

US researchers have devised a "seeing machine" that could enable the visually challenged to view the face of a friend and even click pictures!

MIT's Elizabeth Goldring, in collaboration with Rob Webb of Harvard University, have come up with the "seeing machine," a portable device fitted with a Liquid Crystal Display and a digital camera that helps blind people see objects.

The camera carries visual feed to the LCD in the seeing machine. Illuminated by light-emitting diodes (LED), the LCD focuses the visual data into a single 'point' that travels into the eye and helps the blind to see the object.

The camera enhances the 'feel-good' factor in a visually impaired person to a great extent, says Goldring. "When someone has a diminished sense, the inability to express yourself with that sense can be frustrating," she says in an information released by MIT.

By taking photos, "I feel I'm able to express myself visually with my blind eye, and there's value in that, I think" the researcher says at the culmination of her 20- year-old work.

About five inches square and mounted on a flexible tripod, Goldring's handy "seeing machine" costs much lesser than the diagnostic Scanning Laser Opthalmoscope (SLO), which costs between $4,000 and $100,000.