Bionic spectacles could soon be on sale to help hundreds of thousands of blind people ‘see’.
Oxford University researchers are developing ‘smart spectacles’ that use tiny cameras and a pocket computer to alert wearers to objects and people ahead.
They will make it easier for the blind to navigate shopping centres and busy train stations, and could even allow them to ‘read’ bus numbers and the computerised displays on cash machines.
The lightweight, inexpensive glasses, which could be ready for general sale as early as 2014 if tests are successful, would be suitable for most of the 300,000 Britons who are registered blind.
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Elderly people with age-related macular degeneration are likely to be the biggest beneficiaries.
Previous attempts to create such a device have resulted in large dark glasses with clunky cameras and bulky computers.
But advances in technology mean it should be possible to create bionic spectacles that look almost indistinguishable from standard glasses.
Importantly, a price tag of less than £1,000 should make them affordable, the Royal Society’s Summer Science Exhibition heard.
Dr Stephen Hicks, a clinical neuroscience researcher who is being funded by the Department of Health, said: ‘It is satisfying to think that we will be able to produce this at a cost that is going make it available to the people who will benefit the most.’
Dr Hicks has completed the basic research and is now working on prototype spectacles.
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