Bionic glasses for poor vision

Science - Jonathan Wood | 05 Jul 11. A set of glasses packed with technology normally seen in smartphones and games consoles is the main draw at one of the featured stands at this year's Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition. But the exhibit isn't about the latest gadget must-have, it's all about aiding those with poor vision and giving them greater independence. 'We want to be able to enhance vision in those who've lost it or who have little left or almost none,' explains Stephen Hicks of the Department of Clinical Neurology at Oxford University. 'The glasses should allow people to be more independent - finding their own directions and signposts, and spotting warning signals,' he says. Technology developed for mobile phones and computer gaming - such as video cameras, position detectors, face recognition and tracking software, and depth sensors - is now readily and cheaply available. So Oxford researchers have been looking at ways that this technology can be combined into a normal-looking pair of glasses to help those who might have just a small area of vision left, have cloudy or blurry vision, or can't process detailed images.