Star Trek-style smart glasses that allow the blind to see could be on sale by 2016
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A pair of smart glasses that could transform the lives of blind and partially-sighted people could be in the shops as soon as 2016.
The revolutionary technology enables those suffering from sight loss to see obstacles and faces, similar to the fictional high-tech visor worn by Geordi La Forge in TV's Star Trek.
The smart glasses consist of a video camera mounted on the frame of the glasses; a computer processing unit that is small enough to fit in a pocket; and software that provides images of objects close-by to the see-through displays in the eyepieces of the glasses.
The joint project between the University of Oxford and the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) has won a £500,000 grant in a Google charity competition.
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Iain Cairns (pictured) tried out the smart glasses in Oxford's Covered Market. He said that the glasses add extra information and detail to what he sees and that everyone has 'drawings around them'. A version of what he sees is pictured on the laptop (left)
The money will enable RNIB and Oxford University to create 100 pairs of smart glasses and test them with 1,000 people.
This will be the first large-scale test of smart glasses and augmented reality for sight enhancement anywhere in the world and is the first step towards getting the glasses made available to everyone who needs them - for as little as £300.
There are 300,000 people registered as blind in the UK who still have some remaining vision and it si estimated the glasses could help half of them.
The smart glasses enable those with very limited vision to make use of what sight remains, increasing their confidence and helping them navigate and communicate with people.
The prototype has already enabled users to identify faces and obstacles more clearly than they have seen for years.
Dr Hicks of Oxford University is pictured wearing the innovation. Right, the Star Trek character Geordi LaForge
Within 18 months, RNIB hopes to be able to revolutionise the lives of 1,000 people living with sight loss, providing the foundations to create a low-cost version with additional functionality for people with sight loss around the world.
'The idea of the smart glasses is to give people with poor vision an aid that boosts their awareness of what's around them – allowing greater freedom, independence and confidence to get about, and a much improved quality of life,' says Dr Stephen Hicks of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Oxford, who is leading the development of the glasses.
'The group has been awarded further funding from the Royal Society to look at introducing more features into the glasses, such as face, object or text recognition. An audio prompt via an earphone would give people more information about who or what they are seeing.
'We eventually want to have a product that will look like a regular pair of glasses and cost no more than a few hundred pounds - about the same as a smart phone,' says Dr Hicks.
The idea of the smart glasses (pictured) is to give people with poor vision - who are severely sight impaired but can see a small amount - an aid that boosts their awareness of what's around them
Iain Cairns, a copywriter for a marketing agency in London, tried out the smart glasses in Oxford's Covered Market. The 43-year-old was diagnosed with the inherited eye condition choroideremia at around the age of 12. He has an area of central vision left in each eye.
He can still work in front of a computer and carry on writing, but started using a cane around three years ago – mostly as a sign to others that moving around can be more of a problem.
On having the glasses fitted outside a café in the Covered Market, Iain reacted: 'I can see your face.
'It's like the Lord of the Rings when he puts the ring on and sees things in a new way.
'That tablecloth is looking lovely. It's getting the pattern of the tablecloth.
'It's like I've wandered into an 80s pop video. Everyone has cool A-ha drawings round them. It's now much more of a scene with several people in.'
The Google Impact Challenge is run by the technology giant and asks UK-based charities how they would change the world through innovative technology.
Helen Goulden, executive director of the charity's innovation lab and another judge in the Impact Challenge, said: 'This challenge shines a light on just how many charities are already doing great things with technology to address some of our most pressing challenges,' she said.
To find out more about the glasses click here.
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