I'm Elise Hugh, and you're listening to TED Talks Daily.

Natis Putnaman Bun is an electrical engineer.

In this talk from TEDx Beacon Street, Natisse tells us about an affliction that affects two billion of us around the world.

That's billion with a B.

And it's been around for all of human history. You're going to get to

geek out while listening to this 2019 talk and hear about an innovation that promises to help

fix this problem so many of us have. You'll see. That was a pun. It'll make sense after you hear the talk.

Every single one of us will lose or has already lost something we rely on every single day.

I am, of course, talking about our keys.

Just kidding. What I actually want to talk about is one of our most important senses.

Vision. Every single day, we each lose about is one of our most important senses. Vision.

Every single day, we each lose a little bit of our ability to refocus our eyes until we can't refocus at all. We call this condition Presbyopia, and it affects 2 billion people worldwide.

That's right. I said billion. If you haven't heard of Presbyopia and you're wondering,

where are these two billion people?

Here's a hint before I get into the details.

It's the reason why people wear reading glasses or by focal lenses.

I'll get started by describing the loss and refocusing ability leading up to Presbyopia.

As a newborn, you would have been able to focus as close as six and a half centimeters if you wish to.

By your mid-20s, you have about half of that focusing power left, 10 centimeters or so,

but close enough that you never noticed the difference.

By your late 40s, though, the closest you can focus is about 25 centimeters, maybe even farther.

Losses in focusing ability beyond this point start affecting near-vision tasks like reading,

...