(PreserveMacForte.com) A renowned chemist who has been a recipient of a Nobel Prize has found a way to make up for the compromised vision experienced by those dealing with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), reported The Telegraph recently.
According to the article, AMD, which results from damage to the retina’s macula, results in patients suffering from impaired central vision. Left untreated long enough, the condition can progress to the point where patients are declared legally blind. In excess of 460,000 British people are living with the condition, noted the article.
Meanwhile, the article indicated that Prof. Walter Kohn from the University of California, Santa Barbara, has come up with technology that helps AMD patients to see normally. Prof. Kohn, who in 1998 was awarded the Nobel Prize in the chemistry category, came up with a way to employ complex algorithms that can be used to make personalized lenses that make up for distortions caused by AMD. Using the technology, he is developing contact lenses and spectacles. According to the article, Prof. Kohn is also working on glasses that feature small computers to display a fixed-up image from cameras installed on the inside.
Prof. Kohn said in the article that AMD happens to be a considerably “complex disease.” He added, however, that the majority of AMD cases lead to visual issues that cause straight lines to look like curved or twisted lines. With this condition, it becomes difficult for AMD sufferers to do otherwise simple things such as walking up stairs.
He explained that he has devised a way to fix this issue courtesy of algorithms to facilitate rendering images the right way on a computer screen or manufacturing optical lenses for things such as spectacles. According to the article, he added that the lenses in question are a lot more complex tan are those currently employed to deal with other eyesight issues such as short-sightedness. He added that it would possibly be necessary to “re-examine the patient’s eye” at half-year intervals in order to “update the device.” Previous reports have noted that there are two kinds of AMD, wet AMD and dry AMD. Only about 10% of people with dry AMD end up getting wet AMD, which is the more serious of the two.