For millions of individuals worldwide, central vision loss due to Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) can make simple tasks like reading or recognizing faces nearly impossible. At CES 2025, Al Schubert, SVP of Soliddd Sales, gave an overview of their solution for improving the loss of sight. SolidddVision™ smartglasses leverage “fly’s eye” optics to restore sight by projecting images onto healthy areas of the retina.
The Global Crisis of Vision Loss
Macular degeneration is a burgeoning public health priority as global populations age.
- Global Impact: In 2025, roughly 200 million people worldwide are living with some form of AMD.
- United States: Nearly 20 million Americans aged 40 and older have been diagnosed with macular degeneration.
- Late-Stage Severity: Approximately 1.49 million Americans suffer from late-stage, vision-threatening forms of the disease.
- Future Projections: The number of cases globally is predicted to rise to 288 million by 2040.
SolidddVision™: Rethinking Sight Restoration
Traditional low-vision aids often rely on digital magnification or contrast enhancement, which can still leave central blind spots. SolidddVision™ takes a different approach by utilizing parallel-ray light field optics.
The technology works by:
- Real-Time Capture: Two forward-facing cameras capture the user’s environment.
- Fly’s Eye Projection: Proprietary lens arrays project 64 separate, in-focus views in an 8×8 grid across the entire retina.
- Neurological Reassembly: By flooding both the central and peripheral retina with these redundant images, the visual cortex can “fill in” damaged areas to construct a single, stereo, full-field 3D image.
Clinical Success and Industry Recognition
Soliddd’s technology has shown remarkable efficacy in pre-clinical trials reviewed by scientists at New York’s Lighthouse Guild:
- Reading Improvements: 95% of participants with macular degeneration saw an improvement in reading speed.
- Minimum Gain: Every qualified subject tested experienced a reading speed increase of at least 50%, with many seeing several times that improvement.
- Award-Winning Innovation: Soliddd earned the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) Eureka Park Accessibility Award at CES 2025 for its impactful solution.
Sources & References
- American Macular Degeneration Foundation (AMDF): 2025 AMD Awareness Month Resources.
- ContactLenses.co.uk: Macular Degeneration Statistics Worldwide in 2025.
- Soliddd Official Website: Product details and clinical study summaries.
- PR Newswire: SolidddVision Smartglasses Technology Debut at CES 2025.
- Review of Optometry: Global Prevalence of AMD Poses Challenge for Health Care Systems.
[Note, the above text was directed and edited by the author, but written by Google’s Gemini].
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