Elizabeth Goldring, BA, M-Ed.

The PhysOrg article Researchers develop camera for the blind said

Elizabeth Goldring smiles as she shows a visitor photos she’s taken — and can see — with her blind eye.
 
The demonstration comes more than 20 years after Goldring, a senior fellow at MIT’s Center for Advanced Visual Studies, and colleagues began work on a “seeing machine” that can allow some people who are blind or visually challenged to access the Internet, view the face of a friend and much more.
 
The team has moved from Goldring’s inspiration, a large diagnostic device costing some $100,000, to a $4,000 desktop version, to the current seeing machine, which is portable and inexpensive. “We can make one for under $500,” Goldring said.
 
Although the device can be connected to any visual source, such as a video camera or desktop computer, Goldring especially enjoys using it with a photo camera. “When someone has a diminished sense, the inability to express yourself with that sense can be frustrating,” she said. By taking photos, “I feel I’m able to express myself visually with my blind eye, and there’s value in that, I think.”

Elizabeth Goldring, BA, M-Ed. is an artist, poet and Senior Fellow at MIT’s Center for Advanced Visual Studies. While at CAVS she has held positions as lecturer in the Department of Architecture, CAVS Exhibits and Projects Director and Acting Co-Director.
 
Her collaborative research at CAVS includes visualizing her own vision loss and developing both a visual language and “seeing machine” for people who are blind or visually challenged. Her collaborators include artists, scientists, engineers and physicians from MIT, Harvard, The University of Maryland and the Joslin Eye Institute and Schepens Eye Research Institute in Boston.
 
Elizabeth authored Eye: Poems & Retina Prints, Without Warning: 49 Poems, and Laser Treatment: poems and two stories, coauthored Enhanced visual experiences and seeing hardware for reduced vision: A pilot study, and coedited Centervideo: Film, Video, TV and Telecommunication, 1968–81 at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Centerbeam. Read the full list of her publications and exhibits!
 
Articles about Elizabeth’s vision work have appeared in MIT’s TechTalk, the MIT Research Digest, the Harvard Journal, Science, BusinessWeek, Opthamology Review, The Daily Telegraph (London), and The Chicago Sun Times. She has been interviewed on ABC World News Tonight, The NEA Website, New Letters on the Air (PBS), Boston Globe, New Letters, Who’s Who in the East, Who’s Who in American Art, and Who’s Who in America 2002.
 
Elizabeth earned her BA (cum laude) from Smith College, Massachusetts in 1967 and her M-Ed. at Harvard University in 1977.
 
Read An Interview with Elizabeth Goldring and Bringing vision to the nearly blind.