Star Trek-style smart glasses that allow the blind to see could be on sale by 2016

A pair of smart glasses that could transform the lives of blind and partially-sighted people could be in the shops as soon as 2016. A version of what he sees is pictured on the laptop The money will enable RNIB and Oxford University to create 100 pairs of smart glasses and test them with 1,000 people. ‘The idea of the smart glasses is to give people with poor vision an aid that boosts their awareness of what’s around them – allowing greater freedom, independence and confidence to get about, and a much improved quality of life,’ says Dr Stephen Hicks of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Oxford, who is leading the development of the glasses. The idea of the smart glasses is to give people with poor vision - who are severely sight impaired but can see a small amount - an aid that boosts their awareness of what's around them Iain Cairns, a copywriter for a marketing agency in London, tried out the smart glasses in Oxford’s Covered Market. FUTURE VISION: HOW THE SMART GLASSES WORK The smart glasses consist of a video camera mounted on the frame of the glasses, a computer processing unit that is small enough to fit in a pocket and software that provides images of objects close-by to the see-through displays in the eyepieces of the glasses.