Boy meets world: device lets blind see

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This article was published 06/10/2017 (2946 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Seven-year-old Davin Bazylewski has telescopic vision, can change what he sees to black and white, and can even take photos.

He’s not — at least not yet — more powerful than a locomotive or getting ready to leap tall buildings with a single bound. But thanks to the generosity of family, friends and strangers across North America, he is the proud owner of a state-of-the-art eSight device that helps the legally blind child see what he previously could not.

“It will probably help him most for reading or going to a movie,” Davin’s grandmother, Deb Bazylewski, said recently. “He said what he likes most is he no longer has to stand close to the television to see it. He can sit on the couch with us.”

Davin’s response?

“I don’t like reading. I hate reading… I like it when I can do this,” he said, pressing a button on the life-changing $20,000 device to capture a photo of what he’d just seen.

Davin was born with optic nerve hypoplasia — his optic nerves never fully developed. He also can’t see out of one of his eyes.

The Valley Gardens boy managed to learn to ride a bike and he’s in Grade 2 at Bertrun E. Glavin Elementary, but many things in his young life have been a challenge, his family says.

They heard about the eSight device earlier this year, and approached family and friends to help pay for one. That, and donations collected on eSight’s website, made it a reality. Davin spent the summer learning to use the device.

The eSight looks similar to virtual-reality game headsets. It goes over his glasses and ears, and a strap behind his head keeps it tightly fit.

Because the eSight connects to a control device that can be linked to a smartphone, others can see what Davin sees; when he looks at the television, it’s on the screen. He presses a button to zoom in. He presses another button and it switches from colour to black and white. He looks over, asks a visitor to smile and — click — he takes a photo.

“I think that’s his favourite thing to do,” said his mother, Kerri Bazylewski. “He loves learning how things work.”

The zoom function on the eSight allowed Davin to see something else for the first time, his grandmother said.

“He liked seeing the detail on the ceiling,” she said. “He is fascinated by the stipple ceiling. He had never been able to see it before.”

Brandon Leibgott, an eSight spokesman, said the device works by using a video camera at the front, processing the image in a computer and then transmitting it to the user on high-definition screens in front of the wearer’s eyes.

“It presents a full picture to the user,” he said. “It angles the light and bends it so the eye gets more information. And the user can adjust the magnification and adjust the contrast, too.

“It just opens the world to them.”

Leibgott said the user has to have some vision to be able to take advantage of the always-evolving technology. And, he said, while the price is high, it has come down as more units are produced.

“It has only been on the market for three or four years,” he said. “Who knows what it will be like in 20 years?”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca