curiosity hello and welcome to the simulated natural vision technology and one user's low vision journey breakout my name is lisa milgram and on behalf of scitec global i'm so excited to have you join us in today's 30 minute session which is hosted by adaptic you're going to hear from jay cormier who is idaptic's founder and ceo and samuel newman who's a clinical specialist and low vision technology user before we begin i want to share a couple of housekeeping items the sessions being recorded and will be available post-event we ask that you as attendees please remain on mute and if you have a question we ask you use the q a box when the time comes which i think jay will uh alert you to when it's time for questions we ask that you use the raise by hand feature found in the participants panel for those of you who are using a screen reader the keyboard shut cut shortcuts for that are option y on mac and alt y on pc we'll call on you and you get that point you can be unmuted and ask your questions and that's all i have to say i want to turn it over to jay and samuel thank you well thank you lisa can you all see my screen now looks good okay thank you well i again i'm jay cormier founder and ceo of idaptic i'm also here with sam newman who i'm going to introduce a little later on who is a low vision technology user and i thought it would be much more valuable than just having me speak about what we're trying to do to actually show how it helps people in their everyday lives so we are enhancing vision with augmented reality and machine learning and the way we do that first of all um if i can make sure my slide advance is here here we go is uh we've been focusing on central vision loss primarily age-related macular degeneration and that was our original target it's certainly not the only target for low vision aids but this is the leading cause of vision loss for people 60 and older and this manifests itself as a deterioration of the macula which is where your central vision is of course this does leave peripheral vision and that leaves us something to work with um but this is a huge problem the number one cause of vision loss for people 60 and older uh but again we've worked with people all different ages but have most experience with the amd at this point so uh just real quick the team i wanted to emphasize that i'm very happy with the team we have we probably the luckiest day in our founding is when we found our uh both medical officer dr mithal mehta and dr brian kim both became co-founders their retina specialists uh but also have a background in technology one being a programmer from mit and another being a mechanical engineer from columbia before going into medicine and from there we brought on a very strong board but also some of the leading low vision medical professionals in the world like dr cooperman who's head of the uci's gavin herbert eye institute dr becky cammer who is a low vision specialist uh dr paul karpeki a leader in optometry dr lou lipscholz who was also a low vision optometrist so a very strong bench of doctors which really has made this all possible so how do we simulate natural vision well i'm not going to get too deep into the technology but fundamentally we have our a pair of ar glasses so we leverage open market hardware which is augmented reality glasses that have a front mounted camera that captures the image that is displayed in front of your your in the real world then with our proprietary software we integrate that image and just and enhance that image and provide a bunch of different enhancements from machine learning and image processing to redisplay that in front of the person's eyes on the micro displays so what does this actually do is we are taking advantage of the remaining vision left we are enhancing the image to help that person see the scene better now what makes it natural also is not only is this a wearable and completely um useful in many different situations and doesn't inhibit mobility but it also um the user interfaces are autonomous so there's actually modes where you don't have to control anything and the glasses are essentially thinking for you or anticipating what you're going to do and this is very valuable to make it a more natural viewing experience so another point on how our solution works we use something called hybrid see-through certainly what we've seen out there in low vision aids they fall into a couple of different categories for wearables some are virtual reality this is a video see-through technology which you're only seeing what comes in through the camera but therefore you are isolated from reality and you don't have your peripheral vision so that isolates you from the real world or straight augmented reality which is optical see through which really creates a double image which is an overlay on the real world and very hard for a low vision person to um rationalize that double image so adaptic does a hybrid of those two where we're still fully connected um with the peripheral vision to the real world but that reality is integrated and the image is blended with software and we'll have sam tell you how that works a little more later i did want to share our clinical study data although this is an fda class one exempt device it does not require fda approval but we did do a clinical study to make sure we had firm data and could see the benefits of the technology so this was a trial with mostly dry amd patients in the 79 to 90 year old range because this does tend to be an older person's disease with vision in the range of 20 70 to 22.50 so although we've helped people all the way up to 2400 we really targeted that intermediate stage amd for this trial we had a variety of tasks and dr camer designed this trial but this was conducted with an independent optometrist who had no background in low vision so the way it was designed was we were focused on tasks of daily living tasks that included things like reading a bill that was close in mid-distance tasks like spotting canned goods and reading them and far away tasks like spotting a sign and reading the sign and what we saw was i think truly stunning is not only did we see a reduction in time to do these tasks like we expected but we saw a huge increase in the task ability meaning there was a very limited number of people that could do these tasks with their regular glasses and that increased five-fold when they used didactic glasses we also measured visual acuity as you would expect and we saw a doubling of visual acuity on average in the study set so here i'm going to stop talking and i'm going to start to introduce sam newman first of all i really want to thank sam for being here especially since he was in the hospital this weekend and rallied to come back and be able to join us for this sam has a broad background in medical devices and um certainly uh the low vision part of his journey he's going to share as well but i'm going to stop talking and kind of let sam tell you a little bit about himself and where he comes from sam take it away hi everyone and good morning from long beach california uh my uh background's a little diverse i as jay said i i come from kind of a broad spectrum career field um i just retired back in january but my last position uh two positions i was a reservist with the united states public health service as a disaster response specialist i was with them for a little bit over 30 years and um i would have been one of the pandemic responders that um my background's going to any and every natural disaster man-made or natural over the last 30 years uh from there i am i specialized in in the last 20 years medical optics believe it or not um i was born with retinal schisis which is a deterioration of the layers of the retina themselves making my acuity in my right eye about 23.50 my left eye uh worse than 2200 maybe 22.50
so i i was steady-state up until about two years ago and then my vision started deteriorating uh rapidly so i i had made the choice then that i had to leave doing hands-on clinical work my background's truly in anesthesia itself and coming out with visual tools or or devices used for placing the endotracheal tube down into the patient's trachea which is a really small camera so i know cameras and i understand visual aids pretty well so it's pretty interesting that about two to three years ago when i started having problems i went to my local optician and i said hey is there a pair of glasses i can go ahead and just buy that have a camera built into them with a screen and allow me to see and he said no that doesn't exist and i'm thinking too far in the future and i'm thinking star trek well i i myself i don't take that as you know stop by to me that means go and find out as much information as possible so i was lucky enough to be um able to meet dr maida who's my primary ophthalmologist and retinal specialist and jay i do not work for idaptic i am just a friend um they they've been very good at sharing some of the technology and letting me know that the technology is out there um so a little bit about what i i believe that's important in this discussion and what makes this product work and what maybe everyone should take into consideration if they're looking at a device in the future um jay brought up the augmented reality uh that doesn't mean much to anyone unless you're really in technology itself really what it means to myself i still have vision and you still have to have some vision to use this product but what it means is that i can go ahead and i can wear the product and um i don't know if the camera will show up but this is what the product looks like in my just hold it closer to your eyes there you go okay yep so the this is the product itself it does not look honestly it's a fashion statement where i when i wear them they're they're really nice and they don't look like something space age they look like sunglasses and i can wear them throughout the day i can walk with them because a lot of the products out there today you cannot continue to transit or walk around with them on your face because you'll fall over things or or actually get motion sick i've because of the ability to have peripheral vision with it i can go ahead and wear them around the house or even as i walked across the street so let's sam quick question what what were you having the most trouble with while you were working and traveling okay what what were they going to do for the technology what were the tasks that were the big challenges for you so the big tasks and that's where i was going right now um i was traveling probably about 90 out of the month throughout the world and as we all know airports yes they're getting better and they're getting nicer but i noticed that all the signage and such started getting placed further away to me to where i can read the gate numbers or where the different things were um so what was nice is i could wear this product now and i've tried it i went up to the south bay and i wore them and i can see now the gate numbers i can see where the restrooms are i can see oh and moreover i can see where the seat numbers are on the airplane while i'm getting on the airplane i don't have to ask someone anymore where is seat 4f or any of those type of questions i literally can wear them get on the airplane and i can also with that i can read menus now i can read the menus off of walls at fast food and um one of the big things that we as vi people run into is checking out at point of sales being at the cash register uh i'm sure most of you have had that problem where especially with covid where the terminal is a little further away than where you can read it that was always my problem and gave me a little bit of angst so i i can now have these on and i can i can see now what you know the prompts are i'm not i'm not um you know over tipping the waitress anymore or um or i'm not getting 50 out when i really didn't want to get it out i can i can read the terminals now the receipts i can read my receipts um i can watch tv uh i was in the hospital this last week and i was able to watch tv from the bed and also fill out forms as they bring the stack of forms with this device i can go ahead and i can fill out the forms and not have to try to use either a cell phone with um an app or a magnifying glass i can literally wear these like glasses so it's it's been very very uh helpful going across streets i can see stop signs and stop lights um and in a little bit you know i i knew that you know this technology should exist um and you know it even came down to one point where i even built my own cctv this is what you know i just used off-the-shelf stuff and this is the device that i use and it and it worked and you know it's about now i believe partnering with people like the manufacturers and letting also your ophthalmologists and optics specialists know that there's technology out there and that we're no longer being forced and to be you know semi-victimized that we can go ahead and have tools that will help us in the future and and and i truly believe i know it for a fact because i am privy to a lot of the technology out there with other um markets that as the cameras and the technology and the processors get faster and smaller there it's it's endless what the options are gonna be in the next five to ten years but um so that's where i'm at right now with my walk with low vision and honestly i i i'm thrilled that you know there's organizations that are now open and and allowing us to be part of developing new products so it's been a great job sam what's some of the technologies in the past that you found to be more helpful less helpful because obviously this has been a journey for you well i think that would be great to to you know let everyone know well i i it was nice when you know the uh smartphones came out right that built to magnifiers the ability to do text to speech those things were all nice but many of you will be able to relate that when the doctor or the bank hands you a stack of papers to fill out it's really kind of hard to manipulate a cell phone and write at the same time so that was that was a challenge and i i think the this type of product because they're intuitive their glasses they actually have a built-in intelligence to where you're not having to do a whole lot of manipulation that's another thing these products have to be easy for um sorry about that have to be easy for the user and intuitive and so those are the challenges us having um the other thing is and and and really important everyone i'm the type of person i want to look at a price or a description or a title on a on a shelf and know it right away i do not want to read the whole paragraph i don't want the augment or the actual text to speech to read me a paragraph and computer ease because it it's really it's not um i don't find it pleasant listening to it i just want to see the price the actual what i'm buying and let's say it's vitamins i want to know the dosage and things like that but i want to know it and i don't want to have to read the paragraph or the sentences above or below so that that's always been a challenge with some of the products out there another thing that is nice about this is because you do have to have some vision i can look at a bus as it's coming and i can see what the bus route is that's helpful street signs i can read the street signs like jay said most people were able to see almost two times what their acuity was without and uh that allows you to be able to do things like that um and and let's talk about also stress relief when you're able to do these things you're less stressed you're able to enjoy the surroundings around you i go to the park i go to the nature center i can see the birds and i i feel like i'm more with the surroundings versus just a viewer of the surroundings so um i think that's a key thing it's returning us back into being part of everyday life okay and uh so so when we think about you talked a little bit about why wearables are helpful because it's hands-free and why spotting's important maybe just to transition to kind of our last slide and then um people maybe can start putting in their q a i do see a couple of questions already but um we are getting close to q a so if you have more please cue them up but i guess what i'd like to ask you sam is where do you think vision technology is headed this conference is all about vision technology right certainly that's what idaptic's about right i think it's very important to hear a user's view on where you think it's going to go and what you think is most important i i know it from my background in other medical optics i do know that as time goes on matter of fact the cameras are getting smaller i i had a capsule dropped into my intestine this last couple days and it was so small i mean it's a little bit larger than a grain of rice long rice but you know we're looking at you know the cameras are getting smaller uh the processor speed and such so you won't have the lag between what's seen and what's transmitted to the actual cpu or the brains of the of the apparatus the apparatuses are going to start looking a lot more um aesthetically pleasing um not as much how big a deal is that sam that i i think that's big i mean i'm you know i'm 53 years old i you know i'm i'm not really into the looks or anything but i have to say that when when you're at certain places having kids look at you all kind of funny thinking you're from another you know planet or something um that that you get a little bit self-conscious but um i i believe that this product honestly from far away they just look like sunglasses and and that that's really really helpful um and as things progress we're going to end up with smaller units less heat less weight on your nose and your ears a little bit more comfortable i i think that's where things are going to go and we know that you know we look at devices today versus 20 years ago the difference just think of these products 20 years from now i i definitely believe that because of market steering we'll steer the industry to what's going to be the standard and what's going to be acceptable so it's good it's nice okay well thank you i think we've got about eight minutes left right i do see q a starting to pop up so what i'm gonna do is just uh stop the screen share first of all thank you sam for your perspective um and thanks everyone for attending and what i'll do is i'll moderate the questions as they come in um and try to uh you know send them the correct direction so let's see so uh the first question uh thank you says wonderful product what were some of the big challenges when you developed that technology well that is a fantastic question um i would say first of all because we made a strategic decision to focus on the software but the hardware is a big part of this is making sure you had hardware that was uh you know high enough quality right that um that could not only be comfortable like sam said but also provide a high enough quality image and that was deceptively difficult to get at because there's a combination of what the um what the image is made up of right it's made up of how good is the camera that's a very key point is sam made also how good is that processor because how you process those images make a big difference and then finally how do you um how do you display those images because those displays are definitely evolving so those are certainly have been some of the bigger challenges that we have overcome um let's see next question i'm interested in the homemade cctv particularly the control panel so let's see uh maybe sam this is your uh cctv you want to take that one okay uh not wanting i'm not sure if there's technology people with uh you know people that make cctvs um what i i was able to do this is an ipv you can get it off of amazon what's nice about it is it comes with text-to-speech technology and you can also use it for video conferencing so it's i i found an application and then i made some phone calls i found people that had um some spare parts so i lay a book on top of an existing uh platform that allows the book to move right to left and then the unit itself it has a ability to capture and also do text-to-speech or i can change it and make it a video conferencing system and it's bluetooth wireless um it works with any platform being your watch i mean not your watch your um your your television your monitor computer or your smart phone so um and honestly you can do this for under 500 guys so um feel free my email i think is on the end at the end of this but anyone who wants to reach out i'm all about helping everyone else paying forward so if you need help or have questions about doing this type of thing feel free to reach out and i can tell you how to do it and there's some web there's some youtube stuff too but i think the way that i did it's pretty pretty dang good and it it's it's it's able to knock several birds off with one stone yep okay awesome um let's see the next one there's a few questions here so i'm going to try to pick up the pace a little so we can fit them all in it's how do i obtain wearables um so certainly a lot of the companies that make wearables do have websites um but the other place to go try them out are things like the braille institute or the lighthouse guild which has a variety of technologies for low vision that you can try out so you can see how they work for you before you go ahead and buy them next question is it comparable to esight four well i'm going to try to stay out of the competitive realm but the answer is yes it's a wearable um idaptic does have a wider field of vision which is very important and lighter um and i guess i will leave it at that yeah i'd like to say something really quick please everyone look um i know this from the medical community we don't just use one product out there it's so so important for you to try everything out there what's good for me might not be good for the other so when it comes to other products and such and i'm like jay i don't talk about the other products because they all do something a little bit different but please look at the warranties return uh programs and things like that but try them out under every circumstance um that you would be using them i i that's great great point thank you sam let's see next question what are the image enhancement capabilities uh you know in a nutshell there's things like edge enhancement magnification contrast enhancement so there are a variety of image enhancement capabilities along with user interfaces that make that easier for you to use to make it more natural next question battery life price point weight certainly this is on our website battery life we do supply an external battery so it goes all day priced at just under three thousand dollars and weight is a couple hundred grams can it be used with astigmatism um the short answer to that is yes we do have prescription lens inserts that you can add to it uh someone's asking about nystagmus can that benefit that it can we don't have a lot of experience with that so i think the best thing is to try to um try it out and see if it helps you okay some people are asking about funding who's eligible for the device this is a direct consumer payable there are some limited insurance plans that help out uh certainly if you're a veteran the va does pay for these sort of things but it's very much like a hearing aid where it is a direct consumer payable and priced uh like the hearing aids but uh when i have rp not amd um so listen they had some thoughts latency is important light sensitivity um resolution so uh you know the question is do you think these will be coming and the answer is yes absolutely uh we didn't focus on that in the first product but our follow-on products we certainly do have an increased focus on that um where the controls located uh i see some controls on the temple on this version it is correct they are sitting up on the right hand side as sam showing you there and then there's some buttons and a swipe pad to control things um hey jay really quick i think it's important back to the question of where you can get this please don't just go to your everyday off the street optician you need to really go to an optical specialist because they will know more about this type of technology if you go to your costco optometrist or something they're not going to know anything about this great point great great point uh let's see next question was um thank you how about software updates can we install updates the answer is yes this is updatable like uh just like a cell phone um and our future products will actually make that even easier um email address uh sam i think it was sam 911 or sam s-a-m-n-911 gmail.com feel free to reach out to me yep someone asked can they send us a linkedin by all means please do uh another one my acuity is 20 over 750 um when are you going to make something that can handle that well we certainly uh you know have helped people up to 2400 but it certainly does get tougher after that um and i think lisa's gonna cut us off yes we've come to the end um however i've downloaded all the questions and they have names attached to them so i'll make sure that you have those and um we'll be able to get in touch with those that you aren't able to speak with thank you lisa thank you thank you for everybody coming um we want to encourage you to return to the main stage which is at sitetechglobal.com events and we hope to see you in the next set of breakouts thanks again idaptic thank you very much have a great day
2020-12-26