iPhone App to Repair Vision in Delmarva?

Take away the 8,000+ students who attend Salisbury University and who do you have left in the Eastern Shore town with a population of just over 30,000 people? According to the 2010 Census, the median age of a Salisbury, MD resident is 28.1 years old. However, the Census Bureau states that college students are to be included in the statistics of where they attend school, not where their parents live. So, take away the University and the majority of students ages 18-22 who skew Salisbury's demographic data, and you get a town which consists of many older residents. 

Next question: What do many older folks have in common? Besides a higher number of years lived on this Earth, people in their early to mid 40's start to lose their near-sight abilities. In fact, as of 2008, over 12 million Americans have hyperopia, also known as farsightedness. Being farsighted can affect many daily activities, including reading abilities. Normal fixes for hyperopia include reading glasses, contact lenses, and laser treatment. UNTIL NOW. 

Recently released by Apple's App Store, GlassesOff is an application that claims users will be able to see better by participating in 12-15 minute exercises that stimulate the visual cortex of the brain. While hyperopia is caused by the lack of flexibility in a human's eye lens as we age, therefore making changes in visual focus a challenge, visual perception is also controlled by the brain. 

A sample training exercise where users select which way the 'E' is facing. 

Image: GlassesOff Inc.

According to the Pew Research Center, nearly 91% of American adults own cell phones, while over 55% of them use smartphone technology (and this number is increasing daily). This means that over 155 million Americans have access to the GlassesOff App from their phone, including adults in the Delmarva area. Even better news for the application? It also works on a regular, internet accessible computer also, which 98% of all Americans have access to.

But the big question, does it really work?
A study by experts in the vision field say that it does. The concept is called Perceptual Learning, which is basically when you train your brain. The study shows that Perceptual Learning does indeed help older and younger (those with near-sight vision issues) people read better. After a series of exercises over only two days, the patients were able to see font almost half the size of the smallest font they could read clearly before the experiment. The researchers tested the patients 3 months after the two day exercise and found that their vision hadn't declined. All this from playing games on an iPhone. Pretty cool, eh?

For a limited time, the app will cost $9.99, but will jump to $59.99 for extended usage. However, with technology changing rapidly every single day, I wouldn't be surprised if insurance companies started covering application charges, such as they do with Americans who need other traditional vision correction devices, such as glasses or contacts. In an older town like Salisbury, MD with a growing institutional establishment of higher learning (aka Salisbury University), it wouldn't be surprising if many of the vision correction centers in the area add this cutting edge technology to their vision alternatives. In upcoming interviews with some local vision centers, I will discuss the option with doctors and see what they think of this new technology and how it will directly affect the Delmarva area.