You can find everything at CES. Concepts of non-functional connected mirrors without a roadmap, massage chairs resembling Transformers, connected toothbrushes (yes, still in 2025)… And then sometimes, in a 2 square meter stand lost in the middle in the Eurekapark start-up space, we find a revolutionary invention that can restore sight to the visually impaired.
This is the case of Soliddd, a small American company which has developed a device similar to mixed reality headsets, but applied to people suffering from retinal diseases, including age-related macular degeneration (AMD). It’s called Soliddd Vision.
Lenses project the image onto 64 areas of the retina
The device uses two cameras that capture what the user is looking at and transmit it to their screens. Patented lenses are shaped into a grid that returns 64 images per eye. Each image in the grid covers a portion of the scene, with a slight difference in viewing angle between two images side by side. These are projected onto different areas of the retina, including the ends which have few photoreceptors.
The brain then recombines all these images to form just one. This approach has two advantages: first of all, it allows true stereopsis (three-dimensional vision) even with one eye, and above all it can bypass damaged areas of the retina by using adjacent areas. This makes it possible to compensate for the black spots and deformations which are typical of retinal diseases.
“The combined image shows the entire visual field even if part of the central vision is obstructed or damaged by macular degeneration, with good resolution and good visual acuity”comments Neal Weinstock, CEO and co-founder of Soliddd.
Asked by us about the size of the field of vision provided by the lenses, he replied: “The initial field of view is gigantic compared to other systems. If you position it where you normally wear your glasses, it is well over 90°, and if it is further from your eyes you still see the image, it’s just smaller. The brightness is also excellent because the screens are behind lenses that are less than 3 mm thick.
A major breakthrough in 2023
Soliddd was founded by engineers 15 years ago and initially specialized in glasses-free 3D displays. With the decline of the 3D market, Neal Weinstock wondered how he could apply his technology to eye health. “My father lost his sight to glaucoma and I thought maybe we could contribute to this industry. And I can tell you the exact day I finally understood how this could work scientifically: the 25th June 2023. I was in a meeting with investors and I suddenly ran out to file a new patent.” Soliddd has already obtained most of its patents filed in the United States and also has several in Europe.
A beta version of the device was available on the stand but was not working during our visit (the hazards of this type of demonstration). We were nevertheless able to test a static version and see that the technology works. “The lenses and the software part are where the magic happens. We have a beautiful mathematical solution to coordinate the multiple images and obtain a coherent point of view, this requires great precision so that the brain can construct the stereopsis and it ‘is the lens that allows it.’
A real scientific guarantee
But Soliddd Vision is not just an engineering product, it is developed with doctors and has already been tested on groups of patients. “It is very important for us to have full scientific credibility,” says Neal Weinstock. “Our head of research is Dr. William Seiple, Chief Research Officer of the Lighthouse Guild Clinic in New York, research professor at NYU, visiting professor at Pierre-et-Marie-Curie University and adjunct professor at the Institute of Vision in Paris.”
“We have worked with him and a number of other ophthalmologists in the United States, who have rigorously tested our solution with their patients suffering from macular degeneration.”continues the CEO. “In these tests, there were a few people we couldn’t help because they had really significant vision loss, but most people could read. We measured their reading speed and they were reading 10 times faster, and many of them who can’t read at all without our device were able to do so with it.” Note that Soliddd has also tested a limited number of cases with other diseases such as glaucoma or optic neuritis.
Towards personalization according to the retina of each patient
Asked about the need to personalize each device according to the user and the damaged areas of their retina, the CEO gives us a surprising answer. “What we do is we shine parallel rays of white light into the eye, and in the future we will be able to use that to precisely measure the position of scars and other damage in the eye to adjust the images around them We will probably have these capabilities integrated by the end of the year.
“But even with the current version of our software, without this level of customization, the device is already capable of helping an enormous number of people.” Note that the device also automatically adjusts to the distance between the two eyes (interpupillary distance) and the position of the eyes, even in its current form.
The socket is responsible for vision correction is not a problem either. “The image is always sharp, no matter if you are nearsighted or have accommodation problems like presbyopiaanswers Neal Weinstock. Astigmatism is another matter, and it will be taken care of in the future but it will take us a few years to get there. We already have a patent covering this development.”
Limited release in the United States this summer
A release in limited quantities (a few thousand units) will take place in June in the United States. “Europe is obviously a very important market for us, but marketing will begin in the United States because that’s where we are based.” The commercial version due out in June will be thinner and lighter, although you shouldn’t expect it to be as light as a simple pair of prescription glasses. The price has not yet been decided, nor even the exact economic model.
Soliddd is considering a rental system initially, as software support will be required in any case. “We will likely work with ophthalmologists to be matched with patients who need the device.” Direct sales to the consumer could take place in a second phase. One thing is certain: it will be expensive at first. “We hope that mass production will allow us to offer it at a more affordable price in the future.”
Conventional optical aid devices are generally of very poor quality while being overpriced. It is often better to use a smartphone with a specialized application. This is why Soliddd Vision excited us so much: it is a truly innovative device, and which is simply incomparable with the existing one.
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