Category
Dr. Preeti Verghese Awarded NEI Grant
April 25th, 2017
Congratulations to Senior Scientist, Preeti Verghese, Ph.D., who was awarded a four-year grant from the National Eye Institute to study ways of assisting patients with age-related macular disease (AMD) in the performance of real-world tasks. Dr. Verghese’s research lab examines the neural processes, strategies, and adaptations that humans use to interact with objects in the real world and apply these to visual adaptations in clinical populations.
DescribeAthon 17 ‘Marathon’
March 10th, 2017
On January 26, 2017, in San Francisco, the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute’s Rehabilitation and Engineering Research Center (RERC) hosted DescribeAthon 17 — an event that used the Institute’s YouDescribe technology, developed by scientist Dr. Josh Miele, to raise awareness about video accessibility on the web for blind viewers. YouDescribe is an enhanced video program for YouTube in which recorded voices describe what cannot be seen.
SKERI Researchers Featured on Research! America Blog
February 8th, 2017
SKERI scientists Drs Preeti Verghese, Lori Lott, and Natela Shanidze were featured on the Research! America blog for AMD/Low Vision Awareness Month.
In Memoriam: Valerie Morash
January 27th, 2017
The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute mourns the tragic loss of one of its most outstanding scientists, Valerie Morash PhD. Val was an amazing researcher and a wonderful person who breathed not only scientific brilliance but empathy and good humor into everything she did. With degrees from MIT and UC Berkeley in engineering, statistics and psychology, her skills had extraordinary breadth as well as depth.
Senior Engineer Bill Gerrey Honored with a Named Room at New LightHouse Building
November 16th, 2016
San Francisco’s LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired recently moved to its new facility at 1155 Market Street, 10th Floor, San Francisco, California. One of the rooms at this new LightHouse is named “Bill Gerrey, WA6NPC Amateur Radio Station.” It is a state-of-the-art amateur radio station that is named in honor of Bill Gerrey, a blind engineer, who is a researcher and engineer at The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute. Bill Gerrey earned a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering from California Polytechnic University.
Smith-Kettlewell Announces New Wayfinding App for Blind and Visually-Impaired Travelers
September 29th, 2016
Remote Infrared Signage (also known as “Talking Signs”) was invented at The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute in San Francisco. This powerful system used infrared beams to provide blind travelers with information about the location of transmitters marking bathrooms, bus stops, businesses, buildings, and beyond. Users could point hand-held receivers to accurately locate and identify the “signs” in that direction.
Scientists Receive NEI Grant Aiding Blind Interaction with Physical Objects
August 1st, 2016
James Coughlan, PhD, Senior Scientist at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, San Francisco, California, was recently awarded a four-year grant from NIH-NEI (R01EY025332) entitled, “Enabling Audio-Haptic Interaction with Physical Objects for the Visually Impaired Summary”.
Smith-Kettlewell Awarded NEI Institutional Training Grant
July 18th, 2016
UK Ophthalmologist Joins Smith-Kettlewell Research Staff
November 6th, 2015
Arvind Chandna, MD, joined The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute in San Francisco on November 1, 2015, as a Senior Clinicial Researcher in pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus.
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Smartphone app, BLaDE, detecting a bar code