Nonagenarian Inventor at Work on Vision Projects

She commutes from her retirement home to a Palo Alto think-tank.

A 91-year old woman whose lifetime of inventions include a precursor of the smart glass commutes from her retirement home to her job in a Silicon Valley think-tank. Barbara Beskind, who suffers from macular degeneration, specializes in projects relating to the elderly. Her “smart glass” concept equipped eyeglasses with cameras and speakers to help users remember peoples’ names. More recently, she has contributed to the design of a new kind of bifocal — eyeglasses that turn from a farsighted prescription to a nearsighted one. Originally, the design team wanted to put small batteries in the glasses. Beskind pointed out that old fingers are not that nimble.

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