[Las Vegas (USA) = AVING News] Celico Co., Ltd. (CEO Kim Jeong-seok), a company developing AR glasses that helps visually impaired patients correct their vision, held a total of 1 events from January 5th (Thursday) to 8th (Sunday, local time). The daily announced that it participated in ‘CES 4’ held in Las Vegas, USA.
Celico is a startup that was selected for the Ministry of Science and ICT’s bio and medical technology development project in 2017 and is developing electronic eyes (artificial retina) for the visually impaired. Celico, a company located in the Pangyo Startup Zone, produces smart glasses that can be worn by patients whose eyesight is gradually declining so that they can see clearly again, as the company name means ‘complete’ in Spanish, and helps them restore their eyesight using augmented reality technology. We are developing and manufacturing AR glasses.
At this CES, Celico received an innovation award in the wearable technologies category, and also received a lot of attention from visitors by providing an opportunity to demonstrate the product in person at the exhibition.
Kim Jeong-seok, CEO of Selico, said, “Many people with disabilities also stopped by our booth. “Because we not only research and develop products but also manufacture them, we were able to demonstrate them directly at the booth, and there were many people who wanted to commercialize them,” he said, introducing the situation at CES.
Macular degeneration, the number one cause of blindness in the elderly, is a disease in which the photoreceptor cell layer of the retina is damaged and cannot sense light. If the intensity and wavelength signals of light are not supplied to the brain, the ability to see light is lost and vision is lost. Because treatment methods using antibody injections and stem cells are limited, Celico developed an electronic eye device that induces electrical stimulation of the retina in blind patients.
The microelectronic eye technology researched and developed by Celico inserts an image sensor chip into the damaged photoreceptor cell layer, detects light through the chip, creates an electrical signal, and sends it to the brain through the optic nerve. Although this technology has already been developed in the United States, Germany, and France, Celico is producing high-resolution micro electronic eyes with improved performance and is developing it so that many people can benefit by lowering the price through domestic technology.
CEO Kim said, “To increase the resolution of the image sensor chip used in micro electronic eye technology, pixel to pixel must be closer together. However, there is a problem that interference occurs,” he said. “We have developed technology to suppress interference.” “Currently, we have registered a patent in the U.S. and are awaiting registration review in Europe and China,” he explained.
The AR glasses introduced by Celico were manufactured for patients in the early and middle stages of retinal disease. It functions as a display device that captures a wide field of view through a camera attached to the AR glasses, processes images in real time, and displays them on the patient’s retina.
Additionally, the company explains that power is needed to use the image sensor, but batteries cannot be inserted inside the eye. Accordingly, Celico developed AR glasses with wireless charging technology to supply power to the image sensor. A Celico official explained that the design aspect was also taken into consideration by installing a magnetic induction coil for wireless charging in the glasses frame so that users can customize it to their desired style.
CEO Kim said, “60% of the world wears glasses, and 1 million of them have retinal disease. He also said, “As aging progresses gradually and vision declines, we all need to pay attention to eye health.”
He continued, “We plan to enter Japan, which has a large elderly population, as well as the United States and Europe,” adding, “We are trying to commercialize AR glasses in Korea as soon as possible, and the micro-electronic eye technology will be developed in 2-3 months after receiving approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.” “We want to provide help to domestic patients within a year,” he said, revealing his plan.
Meanwhile, ‘CES’, the world’s largest IT exhibition, is an exhibition where you can understand the trends of the global home appliance industry at a glance. Hosted by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), it is held every January in Las Vegas, USA. AVING News, which has covered CES for 1 consecutive years, has reported CES news around the world every year since 17, and has been selected as the ‘BEST OF CES’, which selects the best innovative products and technologies, and the ‘BEST OF’, which selects domestic innovative companies. ‘MADE IN KOREA’ was held. In addition, CES on-site issues were vividly conveyed through ‘AVING LIVE’.
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