shankzI will fill more details in later, but here's my concept:
An affordable (under $100) reading glass solution for people with impaired vision that can't use magnifying lenses. My parents have Macular Degneration and at a certain point in time the magnification they need makes the lens too small to actually use effectively to read the paper or a book. We've been exploring existing tech, but it's all very expensive and often hard to use. I came up with the idea after considering that all these approaches were trying to reinvent something new and I thought rather than make something new use technology to make something existing better like reading glasses. The idea is the device is used just like reading glasses are. You put them on and read. I think the tech should be as simple as possible.
I think there should be a power switch and a slider or knob for zoom. The circuitry/computer only processes the input from the camera and drives the display with the ability to zoom. And maybe a light for low light situations. I think the bulk of the device should rest on the body at the base of a eyeglass strap.
I've also considered making the device something you can affix to existing glasses and think that might be an even simpler solution and cheaper. I am a pcb designer by trade with more skills on hardware construction than the software side. My main skill deficit is in the area of video drivers. I welcome any advice and help.
I would like in the end to make a simple, cheap aid for people with vision problems.
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Reading Glasses
Create reading glasses for people with declining vision that are affordable.
AKA
Michael Justin Sexton
bsutton
Howdy shankz, I am new to hackaday so take it easy on me ;) I think your idea has a lot of potential. The camera is a no brainer, like you said phone or webcam. So that is going to have circuits that to somewhere. I assume that is the item you call "battery and circuitry". The display is something I am not familiar with, I am assuming you are looking at the same tech used by google glasses, apple glasses, etc? Are these displays expensive? So you will have circuits from the camera and circuits from the display going to and from the "battery and circuitry" device. Since you are a circuit board guy, I am assuming you will design something that connects the camera, display, battery and hosts some chip set. A couple of ideas, I like the idea of having a dial that the user can turn to increase or decrease the zoom. That would be simple and intuitive to anyone whether they were tech savey or not. As for the glasses, you could start off 3d printing them using recycled plastic. There is a group called precious plastic that makes 3d printer material out of recycled plastics (one of my other interests). You could get this all the way up to the pre production phase on a DIY 3D printer. Of course if this goes to market, you would want to use a professional group that could scale. random thoughts -- I have been fascinated by the PC on a stick that are on sale at amazon and elsewhere. an entire PC on a usb thumb drive sized device. I think this is where the future of IT will go. The days of motherboards, AMI BIOS, disk drives, etc are going to come to a close soon. A PC of today looks remarkably like a PC from 25 years ago (I know because I was in the business then). Other random thought, Do you know when you go to the eye doctor, and they have a little machine that looks into your eye ball and figures out what your vision is? Could you do the same thing with a higher end version of this device? So in addition to the outward facing camera, you have two inward facing cameras that look at the persons eye balls. Using the same algorithms the eye doctor uses, you figure out what the persons vision needs are. Then you adjust the lenses to match the person's vision (I think there is tech that does that on the market today).