Technology Aims to Bring Images Into Focus
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowPurdue Research Park-based company CPrecisely is working on technology to enable people who wear glasses and contacts to see content on smartphones, computers and tablets without corrective lenses. The screen image would adjust into focus based on the user's eye prescription. November 11, 2014
News Release
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — CPrecisely, a Purdue Research Park-based company, is developing technology to allow people to see digital content with increased sharpness on displays like tablets, smartphones and laptops without the need for corrective eyewear, according to a company official.
CPrecisely was co-founded by Daniel Aliaga, chief executive officer and associate professor in Purdue's Department of Computer Science, Chris May, chief technology officer, and Ignacio Garcia-Dorado, chief science officer.
Aliaga said 75 percent of people in the United States need corrective eyewear.
“From the age of 45, people inevitably start to suffer from presbyopia – a condition in which the lens of the eye gradually loses its ability to focus, making it difficult to see objects up close,” he said. “This means they will need reading glasses in their day-to-day lives. This creates a greater need for a more efficient way to see content on electronic devices.”
The CPrecisely development team has created corrective imaging technology that helps a person with visual impairments to see electronic images or text properly.
“Our approach exploits the way the uncorrected eye incorrectly focuses light rays. These images look clear to a person who isn't wearing their corrective eyewear, but they look strange to people with 20/20 vision,” he said. “It corrects the image according to the user's eyesight, making it a personalized solution. It uses existing digital displays and projectors, so there is no specialized hardware to purchase.”
Aliaga said there are two equally important parts to developing CPrecisely's business: software development and content availability. He said the software soon will be complete and distributed through app stores such as Apple iTunes and Google Play. Aliaga and his colleagues now are looking to collect content.
“First, we are going to focus on public domain content,” he said. “After we do that, we hope to connect with publishing companies to inquire about re-selling their content with our image correcting technology. Customers would be able to apply our technology to their current or new e-books.”
Aliaga said the Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization and the Purdue Foundry have helped in commercializing innovations and encouraging startups and entrepreneurship.
“The Purdue Foundry helped us in the development of our business plan while OTC helped the inventors apply for a patent, which was then licensed exclusively to CPrecisely,” he said.
The technology has been exclusively licensed to CPrecisely through the Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization. More than 20 startups based on Purdue intellectual property were launched in the 2014 fiscal year. A video about CPrecisely is available at http://youtu.be/vXH1KmwHSC4
For more information on other Purdue intellectual property ready for licensing and commercialization, visit http://www.otc-prf.org. For more information about available leadership positions, investing in a Purdue startup or licensing a Purdue innovation, visit http://purduefoundry.com.
About CPrecisely Inc.
CPrecisely offers a corrective imaging software solution to provide sharp visible content to the public, improving upon, simplifying or replacing their corrective eyewear. Our approach creates images that look strange to a person with normal vision, but which exploit the way the uncorrected eye incorrectly focuses light rays so that the images look normal to a person not wearing corrective eyewear. Our solution does not require special hardware, but rather uses existing digital displays.
About Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization
The Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization operates one of the most comprehensive technology transfer programs among leading research universities in the U.S. Services provided by this office support the economic development initiatives of Purdue University and benefit the university's academic activities. The office is managed by the Purdue Research Foundation, which received the 2014 Incubator Network of the Year from the National Business Incubation Association for its work in entrepreneurship. For more information about funding and investment opportunities in startups based on Purdue innovation, contact the Purdue Foundry at foundry@prf.org.
Source: Purdue Research Foundation