Combating blindness is vision of UT, ORNL project
From: NASA Tech Briefs - 02/09/2005

Millions of people at risk of becoming blind could one day be helped by an
Oak Ridge National Laboratory technology originally intended to understand
semiconductor defects. 

The project takes advantage of the Department of Energy lab's proprietary
content-based image retrieval technology, which is a method for sorting and
finding visually similar images in large databases. Manufacturers of
semiconductors have found this technology highly effective for rapidly
scanning hundreds of thousands of tiny semiconductors to learn quickly about
problems with manufacturing processes.  

"We're adapting a proven technology and combining it with new image gathering
and analysis tools to help create a database to assist in the diagnosis and
treatment of blinding eye diseases such as diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and
age-related macular degeneration," said project co-leader Ken Tobin of ORNL's
Engineering Science & Technology Division.  

Read the entire article at:
http://www.ornl.gov/info/press_releases/get_press_release.cfm?ReleaseNumber=mr20050208-00