A new pair of glasses created by San Diego researchers may give doctors a new way to save lives.
Augmented interactive Reality or AiR glasses premiered at the Anesthesiology conference in downtown San Diego, where thousands of vendors come with their inventions, hoping they will take off as the future of the medical field unfolds
These glasses, however, are far from ordinary.
Here's how they work: AiR glasses use a doctor's voice and movements to pull up information as they work. That means as a doctor works on a patient, he or she can, for example, check out the patient's charts.
“For me, it’s like wearing a pair of sunglasses that have a computer in them. I can see and talk to you completely clearly, but I can see the data being fed to my monitor on either side of your face,” said Blake Byrne, who demonstrated AiR glasses.
In a reenactment, Byrne, the pretend doctor, operates on Keri Hill, a pretend patient, without taking his eye off her to check a chart.
Hill told us what it’s like lying there as someone doesn’t touch you, but waves their hand in front of you.
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“It is a little strange, if you’re watching it on the screen, he’s like touching my nose or my eye," Hill said, laughing.
Joe Kiani, founder of Masimo, stumbled across AiR glasses and demanded he take part.
“We’ve had like 200 people every time we’ve done the demo," Kiani said. "The feedback we’re getting, I don’t think we’ll have to work too hard at it. I think they’re ready for it."
Kiani created the medical software used inside the glasses and teamed up with the inventor Soulaiman Itani.
Itani insists AiR glasses cut down on contamination, saying, “You know when the doctor touches a tablet or keyboard, that’s very dangerous because many people have touched that keyboard. Just taking that and putting it into the air, saves lives.”
Just 26 years ago, Masimo started out of Kiani's garage once he graduated from San Diego State University.
If the future is measured by past success, the FDA approved Masimo’s wireless pulse and oxygen detector two days ago.
AiR glasses is a prototype and the FDA has not approved it.
