As someone who wore glasses most of her life, I can really appreciate the idea behind this app. And I had heard about exercises and training that you could do to try to strengthen your eyes and improve your vision. I ended up having laser eye surgery, but if you’re still looking for a way to get rid of your glasses, this may help.
GlassesOff is an app for iPhone that promises to “help you achieve over 80 percent improvement in vision acuity” by training your brain to more efficiently process the blurred images that result from near-vision deterioration. From Ucansi, the company that developed GlassesOff, via cnet.com:
“As people age, the lens loses its focusing power, resulting in near-vision deterioration. Unable to focus the way we used to, images sent to be processed in the brains’ visual cortex are unfocused and processing is slow and very difficult, resulting in a blurred image,” as well as tired eyes and headaches, Ucansi says.
Uri Polat of Tel Aviv University, also a co-founder of Ucansi, developed software that trains users to detect patterns called Gabor patches (blurry lines created by varying a gray background) and adapt to them. The training purportedly helps users become better at the task, resulting in vision improvements.”
In a study with 100 patients with presbyopia, volunteers were able to read more than two extra lines down on the eye chart after their GlassesOff training. The app will be available early next year for iPhone, but there are some considerations to think about, especially cost. The initial cost of the app is $95, which gets you three months of training, where you’ll do exercises for 15 minutes, three days per week. After that, there will be a monthly fee to maintain your vision improvements.
Again, being a former glasses-wearer, the idea of not having to wear them is something I would definitely be interested in, but I’ll be curious to see more data on long-term results. And while the cost may seem high, when compared to the price of specialty lenses and designer frames, the potential improvements in your vision may be worth the price.