Betacom's New Technology Enables Legally-Blind People to See.Business Editors NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 1, 2001 A new medical device that promises to return sight to those who are classified as legally blind is being introduced this month by a small Toronto-based company, Betacom Corporation. Called the VisAble Video Telescope(TM), this product looks like a purple hand-held camcorder, but is a powerful tool that allows many of the 17 million individuals in North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. who suffer from macular degeneration macular degeneration, eye disorder causing loss of central vision. The affected area, the macula, lies at the back of the retina and is the part that produces the sharpest vision. , glaucoma glaucoma (glôkō`mə), ocular disorder characterized by pressure within the eyeball caused by an excessive amount of aqueous humor (the fluid substance filling the eyeball). , retinitis pigmentosa Retinitis Pigmentosa Definition Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) refers to a group of inherited disorders that slowly lead to blindness due to abnormalities of the photoreceptors (primarily the rods) in the retina. , cataracts or diabetic retinopathy diabetic retinopathy n. Retinal changes occurring in long-term diabetes and characterized by punctate hemorrhages, microaneurysms, and sharply defined waxy exudates. , the ability to enhance and maximize their remaining useable vision while being completely mobile. For these individuals, crossing the street, seeing a grandchild play baseball, reading a street sign - all are heretofore-impossible tasks. With this product, these tasks become as easy for low vision individuals as they are for normal-sighted ones. Betacom has developed this product jointly with scientists at the Johns Hopkins University-Wilmer Eye Institute and the Centre for Sight Enhancement at the University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (also referred to as UW, UWaterloo, or Waterloo) is a medium-sized research-intensive public university in the city of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The school was founded in 1957. in Canada. Several years ago, Johns Hopkins' scientists developed a head-born, helmet like device called LVES LVES Low Vision Enhancement System (Robert Massof/Wilmer Eye Institute & NASA) LVES Left Ventricular End Systolic (echocardiograms) , which allowed legally blind people to see. The only problem was that the LVES device required the user to remain stationery. Other products have been introduced, such as visors with lenses that drop down, but users of these products find that they are self-conscious when "wearing" a device. The VisAble Video Telescope takes much of the LVES technology, marries it to new electronics technology and brings it all down to a hand-held device that is simple to use and aesthetically acceptable to the user. A similar analogy from a technology point of view would be to think about how a mainframe computer has been transformed down to a hand-held computer.s Brian McCarthy, founder of Betacom, will be in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Wednesday, October 10 through Friday, October 12, and is available to demonstrate the technology. In addition, there are currently at least two New York-based doctors who are using the VisAble Video Telescope with their own patients, and reporters can be put in touch directly with key doctors from the University of Waterloo and Johns Hopkins University-Wilmer Eye Institute. Please contact Bev Jedynak or Carlotta McGuire at Martin E. Janis & Company, Inc., 312-943-1100, e-mail: info@janispr.com if you would like further information or have any questions. |
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