365 Things to Smile About Day 234. Low Vision Products!

Today I spent my morning working on my low vision observations at the V.A. and got to see a demonstration of a low vision aid called OrCam.  It is a pair of glasses that you can have your own prescription in and attached to the right bow is a small camera and tiny speaker that sits in front of your ear.  This was the OrCam Eye so it had a few extra features than the OrCam Reader.  What it does is takes a picture of something you want to read and reads it to you.  This is known as OCR (optical character recognition).  It can also be taught to recognize faces and products from the grocery store.

I got a chance to try it out walking around reading different things and working the control box.  It was actually really cool and I just might have a chance to become a certified trainer for the device.  If the rep can come back before I finish school in a few weeks!  Lol!  It isn't for everyone and like all low vision devices it is crazy expensive and of course not covered under insurance :( .  But I love the direction that research is taking us in coming up with new aids for the blind and visually impaired and was really excited to get a chance to see this device in action and use it myself!  A pretty good morning today!!