News

Ahead of next week’s Child Health Technology Conference (#CHT2021), our spotlight on companies that have developed ingenious innovations to help improve children’s health and wellbeing continues. Today we look at how GiveVision helps transform the lives of children with severe sight impairments.

In 2014, the GiveVision team came together with the determination to bring sight back to people living with low vision. The team, formed from a group of scientists, engineers, and social entrepreneurs, spent several years working towards a wearable sight enhancement device. Since then, the company launched its first wearable low vision aid called ‘SightPlus’.

Concurrently, the team is now developing their second-generation solution, with the aim to get closer to the form factor of glasses. GiveVision has been closely working with research institutions such as Moorfields Eye Hospital and Sheffield Children’s Hospital to ensure that their solutions closely map onto patient’s needs, and involves charities supporting blind people in supporting recruitment and participant engagement.

The first device is SightPlus, a class 1 medical low vision aid combining augmented reality and virtual reality headset to act as an efficient low vision aid enhancing visual functions. It enables users to see close-up and at various distances, and to engage with daily living activities. 65% of long-term users, including young users, reported being able to do activities that they could not do before.

SightPlus has been shown to have a great impact on education. Teachers have highlighted advantages about its multipurpose use supporting the access to information that can’t be digitalised or that is difficult to enlarge. Its hands-free use enables more engagement in maths, arts, and DIY.

In the picture, you can see SightPlus users that have been using the device for various activities: reading the whiteboard, writing, fixing a computer, fishing, and watching a race.

Sheffield Children’s Hospital is about to start a study to assess the impact of SightPlus on 60 children and young people with visual impairments. They will compare their visual acuity with and without the device, as well as leave them a device for one month and conduct a quality-of-life evaluation.

Find out more about GiveVision or sign up if you would like to try SightPlus