How a rare retinal disease led this patient to develop a new assistive technology

When Zuby Onwuta told people around him that he could make his eyesight better just by thinking, no one around him believed in it, with some of them thinking he was just a crazy person.

This all began in 2012 when Zuby could see clearly one day and the very next one, it became impossible to see exactly the same thing and with no explanation! After meeting with nearly 300 eyecare professionals, he got his diagnosis, which was a very rare retinal disease called Stargardt with cone and rod dystrophy.

The diagnosis didn't stop him, and he began to work on his dream, which lead him through 3 years of hard work and many struggles, but in the end, Think and Zoom was created! This new device is a hands-free visual magnification tool that is powered by brain waves, and this is achieved with software that pairs the functionality of a Neurosky EEG headset with a camera, an operating system, and a display. The headset detects your focus and signals the display — Google Glass, a phone, or a tablet — to zoom in. By just blinking, a picture is captured allowing the software to zoom.

Think and Zoom is currently in the first phase of the National Science Foundations I-Corps program at the University of Texas at Austin where they are exploring all their opportunities and finding their potential market placement, all while developing a commercialization strategy.

Learn more about this solution here https://thinkandzoom.com/
This story was adapted from https://medium.com/theplug/a-rare-retina-disease-diagnosis-led-him-to-cr...

All the images have been taken from https://medium.com/theplug/a-rare-retina-disease-diagnosis-led-him-to-cr... and https://thinkandzoom.com/

DISCLAIMER: This story was written by someone who is not the author of the solution, therefore please be advised that, although it was written with the utmost respect for the innovation and the innovator, there can be some incorrect statements. If you find any errors please contact the patient Innovation team via info@patient-innovation.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NJiH91SbmU