Smart glasses being developed at Oxford University for the registered blind that could one day cost as little as a mobile phone are being tested out by volunteers.
Researchers are measuring how the glasses can help people with limited vision navigate and avoid walking into obstacles in public spaces.
Testing venues have been set up in Oxford and Cambridge involving 30 volunteers, with researchers controlling the lighting and introducing obstacles to avoid.
One patient, who was diagnosed with the inherited eye condition choroideremia at around the age of 12, immediately reported seeing people’s faces and the patterns on tablecloths once again during the tests.
Tests of an earlier prototype last year with 20 volunteers showed it was the third of people with lowest vision who benefitted most, and the university cited 100,000 people in the UK who could potentially benefit.
The smart glasses consist of a video camera mounted on the frame of the glasses, a computer processing unit small enough to fit in a pocket, and software that provides images of objects.
It means the transparent electronic displays, where the glasses' lenses would be, give a simple image of nearby people and obstacles. The researchers said the glasses did not replace lost vision but assisted with spatial awareness, working particularly well in low light to cope with night blindness.
Dr Stephen Hicks of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Oxford said: ‘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.’