G*lles.Den.Abt
27th November 2012, 22:44
The hi-tech glasses are designed to help prevent "legally blind" people with a tiny amount of vision from bumping into things
Smart specs could take the place of white canes and guide dogs for some blind people in two years, say researchers.
The hi-tech glasses are designed to help prevent "legally blind" people with a tiny amount of vision from bumping into things.
They use tiny stereo cameras in the frames to project simplified images onto the lenses which become brighter as an object moves closer.
From January next year the glasses will be tested in a series of trials involving 160 people with severely impaired sight in Oxford and London.
Developer Dr Stephen Hicks, from Oxford University, said he hoped a finished model will be commercially available in around two years.
The cost is expected to be around £600 while a guide dog costs up to £30,000 to train.
Dr Hicks said the spectacles were designed as a navigational aid, not to restore lost vision.
"The glasses work using a pair of cameras that determine the distance of objects and we simply translate that into a light display," he said.
"This is not restoring sight, but we can improve spatial awareness."
Around 300,000 people in the UK are registered as legally blind.
Of these, 90% possess some residual vision allowing them to detect blurry shapes and differences between light and dark.
Research has shown that fewer than half of people who are legally blind attempt to leave their homes on a daily basis, said Dr Hicks.
"The aim is to increase the independence of the hundreds of thousands of people who are visually impaired in the UK," he added.
A pilot study last year is said to have yielded "very encouraging" results.
Volunteers trying out the glasses managed to master them within a few minutes.
"People were able to recognise where a table was, where a wall was, and when a person was five metres away," said Dr Hicks.
Technology built into the glasses could give them expanded functions, such as reading printed words out loud via an earpiece, or scanning barcodes to display the prices of shop items.
The research was funded through the National Institute for Health Research Invention for Innovation (i4i) programme.
Bron:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology-science/science/hi-tech-specs-developed-by-oxford-university-1450827
Eigen mening:
Ik was voor het vak Engels aan het rondkijken op de site van the daily mirror toen ik plots op deze tekst botste. De invloed die deze bril kan hebben op onze samenleving voor de blinden is zeker niet te onderschatten, zoals ze vermelden in het artikel is een blindegeleidehond zoon 5 keer duurder dan deze bril. Het zou de blinde medemens dus zeker ten goede komen in zijn portefeuille, ook gaat de blinde zich niet meer zo anders voelen omdat een bril niet echt gaan opvallen. Het is prachtig hoe een universiteit gesponsord is en bezig is met het ontwikkelen van deze technologie.
Smart specs could take the place of white canes and guide dogs for some blind people in two years, say researchers.
The hi-tech glasses are designed to help prevent "legally blind" people with a tiny amount of vision from bumping into things.
They use tiny stereo cameras in the frames to project simplified images onto the lenses which become brighter as an object moves closer.
From January next year the glasses will be tested in a series of trials involving 160 people with severely impaired sight in Oxford and London.
Developer Dr Stephen Hicks, from Oxford University, said he hoped a finished model will be commercially available in around two years.
The cost is expected to be around £600 while a guide dog costs up to £30,000 to train.
Dr Hicks said the spectacles were designed as a navigational aid, not to restore lost vision.
"The glasses work using a pair of cameras that determine the distance of objects and we simply translate that into a light display," he said.
"This is not restoring sight, but we can improve spatial awareness."
Around 300,000 people in the UK are registered as legally blind.
Of these, 90% possess some residual vision allowing them to detect blurry shapes and differences between light and dark.
Research has shown that fewer than half of people who are legally blind attempt to leave their homes on a daily basis, said Dr Hicks.
"The aim is to increase the independence of the hundreds of thousands of people who are visually impaired in the UK," he added.
A pilot study last year is said to have yielded "very encouraging" results.
Volunteers trying out the glasses managed to master them within a few minutes.
"People were able to recognise where a table was, where a wall was, and when a person was five metres away," said Dr Hicks.
Technology built into the glasses could give them expanded functions, such as reading printed words out loud via an earpiece, or scanning barcodes to display the prices of shop items.
The research was funded through the National Institute for Health Research Invention for Innovation (i4i) programme.
Bron:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology-science/science/hi-tech-specs-developed-by-oxford-university-1450827
Eigen mening:
Ik was voor het vak Engels aan het rondkijken op de site van the daily mirror toen ik plots op deze tekst botste. De invloed die deze bril kan hebben op onze samenleving voor de blinden is zeker niet te onderschatten, zoals ze vermelden in het artikel is een blindegeleidehond zoon 5 keer duurder dan deze bril. Het zou de blinde medemens dus zeker ten goede komen in zijn portefeuille, ook gaat de blinde zich niet meer zo anders voelen omdat een bril niet echt gaan opvallen. Het is prachtig hoe een universiteit gesponsord is en bezig is met het ontwikkelen van deze technologie.