In Star Trek: The Next Generation Geordi La Forge wore a headset called VISOR that helped him see again, now this “visor” is not anymore a “gadget” from a sci-fiction but reality.

This headset that helps the legally blind see is made by medical technology firm eSight.

The eSight 3, this is the name of the new product,  can enhance legally blind people’s ability to see with a combination of a liquid lens, optical prisms, and a high resolution display.

Yvonne Felix, beta-tester number one for eSight,  tells about her experience: “I remember putting them on and looking up and I saw my husband who I’d been married to for eight years and had never seen before and my 2-month-old son, who we had just brought home from the hospital and he was holding him and it was the most beautiful image, like it’s burned in my mind for the rest of my life.”

The eSight 3 camera, the latest one, looks like a smaller, more elegant version of the increasingly popular virtual and augmented reality headsets. It fits over her eyes and corrective glasses. The front is equipped with a single HD camera and two sensors.

There are 300 million legally blind people in the world, 3 million of which live in North America. They are all potentially candidates to use this device (which costs about $10,000).

 eSight CEO Dr. Brian Mech says that the non-invasive device has a 50-50 shot at working on various eye conditions, although it’s currently more effective for diseases such as macular degeneration and diabetes-related vision loss than it is for glaucoma. “The beautiful thing is it’s not surgical, it’s not medication, it’s not a drug. So you can just try it on.I think the day will come where it’s not so different than just a regular pair of glasses, or maybe even a pair of contact lenses,” he said. “We’re not talking 20 years from now, we’re talking about maybe in the next five to 10 years.”

Source: The Wall Street Journal