Glasses-Off Technology May Eliminate Need for Reading Glasses

Ian C. Langtree - Writer/Editor for Disabled World (DW)
Published: 2012/03/12 - Updated: 2025/04/06
Publication Type: Findings
Topic: Blindness and Vision Loss - Publications List

Page Content: Synopsis - Introduction - Main - Insights, Updates

Synopsis: Glasses-Off technology offers a solution to eliminate need for reading glasses, improving near-vision and offering a better quality of life for seniors.

Why it matters: This article discusses Glasses-Off, a promising new technology designed to help individuals with presbyopia, or age-related difficulty in focusing on close objects, eliminate the need for reading glasses. Based on scientific research, the product uses non-invasive software to improve near-vision by targeting brain functions rather than altering the eyes themselves. This could offer significant benefits for seniors and others experiencing age-related vision decline, potentially improving reading speed and visual clarity without relying on corrective lenses. The article highlights encouraging results from clinical trials, making it a valuable resource for those seeking alternatives to traditional reading glasses - Disabled World (DW).

Introduction

Data from a recent study published in Scientific Reports, demonstrated the utility of a new technology product to help people overcome the natural effect of aging on vision (often referred to as presbyopia). In the study, all subjects who required reading glasses to read newspaper font size became glasses-free following three months of use with Glasses-Off , a non-invasive, pure software solution that targets brain performance rather than lens aging.

Main Item

"The improvement in visual performance of the study participants was achieved without changing the optical characteristics of the eye, which may be encouraging to those who have to use reading glasses," said the researchers at the School of Optometry and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, at the University of California, Berkeley.

"The results suggest that the aging brain retains enough plasticity to overcome the lens's natural biological changes that occur with age, and potentially help improve the quality of life of an aging population that needs to use reading glasses to do simple tasks such as reading a newspaper, restaurant menu, or viewing incoming caller IDs on a mobile phone."

The study showed that following training with the Glasses-Off technology, near visual ability (expressed as the minimum angle of resolution) - improved from an average of 2.44 arc minute to 1.56 arc minute, gaining an effective reduction of 8.6 years in the age of their eyes.

Importantly, after training with Glasses-Off two-to-three times per week over a period of three months visual ability was demonstrated to improve regardless of the age of the subject.

Further, all subjects whose near vision abilities did not allow them to read standard newspaper-sized fonts without reading-glasses, were able to read freely following Glasses-Off use. Finally, average reading speed increased by 17 words per minute saving about 9 minutes when reading a 2,000-word article at a minimal font size.

"These published results further validate the growing body of scientific data supporting the efficacy of Glasses-Off as a non-invasive solution that may eliminate the need to wear reading glasses for hundreds of millions of people," said Nimrod Madar, CEO of Ucansi, the innovator of Glasses-Off. "We anticipate making Glasses-Off available on the iOS platform - compatible with iPhones, iPods and iPads - mid-year, and soon after on the android platform."

About the Study

The study investigated the use of Glasses-Off in 30 subjects tested and defined as presbyopic (14 females and 16 males, average age of 51) with no neurological conditions at the School of Optometry and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, at the University of California, Berkeley. All active subjects used the Glasses-Off protocol two-to-three times weekly over a period of approximately three months.

In order to assess the effects of the training, subjects underwent pre- and post-tests for visual acuity, reading speed, contrast detection and contrast discrimination, as well as tests of lens accommodation, pupil size and depth of focus.

An additional 10 subjects served as controls: three tested and defined as presbyopic subjects, participating in pre-and post-testing roughly 2 months apart, with no intervening training; and seven young subjects (average age of 23) with normal or corrected-to-normal vision in both eyes, which were a young control group.

The study was approved by the Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects of the University of California, Berkeley.

Glasses-Off is a product of Ucansi, Inc., a company developing next-generation software applications for vision improvement. Glasses-Off was developed specifically as a non-invasive solution for "aging eye." Aging eye is the inevitable natural deterioration in visual ability that affects most people by the age of 40 and practically everyone by the age of 50, making it difficult to see near objects clearly without the aid of reading glasses. The Glasses-Off product is based on scientific breakthroughs in the area of eye-brain functions.

Insights, Analysis, and Developments

Author Credentials: Ian was born and grew up in Australia. Since then, he has traveled and lived in numerous locations and currently resides in Montreal, Canada. Ian is the founder, a writer, and editor in chief for Disabled World. Ian believes in the Social Model of Disability, a belief developed by disabled people in the 1970s. The social model changes the focus away from people's impairments and towards removing barriers that disabled people face daily. To learn more about Ian's background, expertise, and achievements, check out his bio.