How Wearable Tech Helped a Little Hockey Fan See Her First Hockey Game

Every so often I’ll come across a wearable tech story while scrolling through my Facebook, that tugs at my heartstrings, a story that shows why so many people are invested in creating tech that can improve the quality of someone’s lives.

Olivia Lettich made headlines around Calgary a few weeks ago, she’s a hockey fan. The 11-year-old watched a Calgary Flames girl for the first time. What makes this story truly amazing is that Olivia had been to a hockey game before, but she couldn’t see anything, this time around she had eSight– a high-tech medical device for the legally blind and people with low vision.

Olivia was diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer at four months old, after nine rounds of chemo and 50 radiation treatments she lost her right eye at just two years old. She was thrilled, according to the Calgary Metro.

ESight is an Ontario-based company and was founded in 2006. The company makes eyeglasses with a camera mounted on it to capture the user’s surroundings in HD video on two OLED screens in front of the user’s eyes. The glasses take the input from the video and displays the image right in front of your eyes on what looks like a 60-inch screen. It’s hands-free and wherever the wearer looks is what is displayed in real time. The wearer can also control the zoom and the contrast of the image.

Although eSight cannot fully restore sight, it can improve remaining sight, and has the potential to positively impact the lives of people with low vision.

I just thought this story was really cool and quiet feel-good Canadian! The advances in wearable technology are making in the world is huge, specifically with how it’s helping out in the medical world. It’ll be cool to see what comes out in the next couple of years to aid people with vision loss.

If you want to see some other cool wearable tech pieces on a runway make sure to grab some tickets for our MakeFashion 5.0 Gala. This will be the first time these pieces will be showcased before they go on a world tour! Tickets can be purchased here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/makefashion-gala-runway-show-50-tickets-29685254395