Newly Published Data Provide Promise for New Technology to Eliminate the Need for Reading Glasses

NEW YORK, Feb. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- 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 GlassesOff™, a non-invasive, pure software solution that targets brain performance rather than lens aging.

"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 GlassesOff 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 GlassesOff 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 GlassesOff 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 GlassesOff 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 GlassesOff™. "We anticipate making GlassesOff 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 GlassesOff 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 GlassesOff 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. The publication is currently available on-line at: www.nature.com/scientificreports  

ABOUT GLASSESOFF™

GlassesOff™ is a product of Ucansi, Inc., a company developing next-generation software applications for vision improvement. GlassesOff™ 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 GlassesOff product is based on scientific breakthroughs in the area of eye-brain functions. GlassesOff is scheduled for launch in 2012 on the iOS platform, including iPhone, iPod and iPad, followed by an Android version.

SOURCE Ucansi, Inc.