Low Vision Glasses An Option for Sight-Impaired

 This story is a few days old, but it seems very interesting to me, it is a special pair of reading glasses for those with low vision.  It says it improves reading ability up to 90% at close range.  Here's the bulk of the article

Optometrist Jeffrey Sonsino of Vandervilt Eye Institute created Illuminated Low Vision Glasses. They combine a high-powered L-E-D light in the frame, magnifying lenses, and prism correction that prevents eye fatigue.

"Those three things together provide magnification and enhanced contrast when the patient is reading at very close distance," Sonsino says.  "This doesn't cure anything, but what this does, is it allows people with the condition to function better."

In a study, the glasses improved patients' reading abilities by almost 90-percent compared to regular glasses.

Click the title for the full story and video

This really intrigued me.  I did some digging about Jeffrey Sonsino, he is an optomatrist and Director of the Center for Sight Enhancement at Vanderbilt Eye Institute, located in Nashfville TN.

The glasses may just be a set of powerful reading glasses with LED lights in the frame.  I found this PDF that is a brief description of the glasses.  Here is an excerp

Illuminated Low Vision Glasses are portable, far less bulky, easier to use than other reading aids, relatively inexpensive to manufacture and do not need to be prescribed by a low vision specialist. Illuminated Low Vision Glasses use high powered LED lighting built into the spectacle frame, magnifying high powered lenses and prism correction to fi x the reading distance.

I tried looking for the patent but couldn't find it.