Closely-held Ocutrx Vision Technologies reported that its augmented reality (AR) glasses significantly improved functional vision compared with standard near correction glasses, or no correction, in subjects with scotoma impairment from age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
Oculenz AR glasses use pixel manipulation to move letters and words outside of the area of the scotoma, or area of vision loss, to adjacent sighted areas of the retina, so the user can see all letters of a word.
All subjects in the pre-pilot clinical trial had difficulty reading, and most had not been able to read for years. The study, which consisted of one visit, included training with the Oculenz headset and tests of visual function. Subjects used a self-calibration module to correlate their scotoma with the digital AR headset.
The best-corrected acuity improved to 20/63 with the Oculenz AR glasses, without magnification, from less than 20/200 with near, or no, correction. After one session wearing the Oculenz, all subjects were able to read at a standard reading pace at 30-point type, with some reading down to 12-point type, suggesting that subjects learned to comprehend the modified view and ignore the blind spot when reading.
In a statement, Dr. Linda Lam, Ocutrx’s chief scientific and strategic officer, said, “this preliminary pilot study demonstrated that the Oculenz ARwear Modified Real-Time Streaming Video method of pixel manipulation can provide enhanced functional vision for those with AMD eye deficits.”
