Google isn’t the only game in town when it comes to head-mounted displays. Sony’s in the game, as is Silicon Micro. All of these consumer-grade displays have one thing in common though: They are made primarily for the sighted. Those with sight issues are, pardon my French, crap out of luck. When you think about it, though, this technology could have astounding implications for those with glaucoma and other visual impairments. It looks like we aren’t the only ones who think so.
Researchers at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid have created a prototype system that uses this kind of glasses-based augmented reality to bring sight to the sightless, well, sort of. Instead of the usual overlay of information over landmarks and the other innovations that are part and parcel with this kind of tech, these glasses focus on simple color display. It helps visually impaired people understand the depth of the world around them by applying different color labels to objects based on their proximity. Pretty cool, right? They are also hard at work on another tech that acts as a virtual magnifying glass to automatically enlarge smartphone and tablet text.
The researchers hope to make this more user-friendly in the coming months by shrinking down the on-board computer and making the glasses less cumbersome to wear. The researchers did not indicate, however, how the economy would rebound after the loss of both the seeing eye dog and cane industries. We are all connected, after all. Check the link for the scientific nitty gritty.
