Smart glasses for the BLIND: Display turns the world into outlines to help people with poor vision 'see' obstacles and faces

SPECIALITIES-

• 1.Device has a video camera mounted on the frame of the glasses
• 2.Software projects images of nearby objects to the see-through displays
• 3.The glasses don’t replace lost vision, but assist with spatial awareness 
• 4.They're designed for people who are severely sight impaired, but not completely blind
• 5.Prototype display could one day be the same size as standard glass.

Many people with normal vision imagine blindness as utter darkness, the unbroken black of a dead TV screen. But approximately 90 percent of people who are designated as legally blind (defined as having less than 20/200 vision in your better eye, with corrective lenses) have some degree of remaining sight. They may have decent peripheral vision but no sight in the center, or they may have only central sight, or “tunnel vision.” They may be able to see light or large objects that are very close.

SmartSpecs, developed by a research team at a University of Oxford lab, use 3D cameras originally developed for the Xbox to capture real time images. The images are then put into high contrast and displayed on a screen in front of the user’s eyes. Dark things become black, while bright things become white. Far away objects are simply erased to reduce visual clutter.

Many visually impaired users find the high contrast allows them to see things they normally couldn’t. Furniture that might ordinarily blend in with a same-colored floor, turning it into a tripping hazard, becomes bright white. Doorways are enhanced. Even faces, which might normally appear as a blur, turn into crisp black and white cartoons. Smiles that might go unseen can be appreciateated.

“All you need to do is get a few bits and pieces of an image and your brain fills it in,” says Stephen Hicks, the Oxford neuroscientist leading the project. “[SmartSpecs are] sort of tapping into that intuitive sense of vision—you just need a bit of shadow here and there, like walking around your house by moonlight.”

                       BYE !