Google Glass was used during an eye examination in Ferris State University’s Michigan
College of Optometry to determine how the wearable computer can improve vision care.
Elyse Kleifgen, a second-year intern in the university’s professional program, is among 8,000 people chosen by the technology giant to be a Google Glass Explorer. On Tuesday, July 2, she and MCO professor Bruce Morgan conducted what may be the first eye exam using the much-anticipated device.
“It appears to us that Google Glass has far reaching potential in optometry from the perspective of hands-off video and photographic documentation, ocular image and data comparisons, plus remote live interactions with our professors and instructors,” said Craig Norman, director of the Vision Research Institute within MCO. “We’re extremely excited that one of our students was selected as a Glass Explorer, pleased that we have already tested it, and we at the Vision Research Institute are looking forward to discovering more ways the device can be used in the eye examination process.”
Kleifgen, of Minocqua, Wisc., was inspired to apply after the Vision Research Institute offered students financial support for the $1,500 device to explore implications for the eye care field.
Google created the Explorer program earlier this year to find “bold, creative individuals” to test Glass before its wide release in late 2013 or early 2014. Applicants were required to submit their ideas through social media sites Twitter or Google+; Kleifgen used Twitter to state how the technology could help optometry evolve.
Kleifgen picked up her Glass last week at Google’s Venice Beach, Calif. office and got right to work familiarizing herself with the device. Tuesday’s eye examination was the first step in ongoing research efforts that will include input from MCO faculty, staff and students.