Oxford Smart Specs Research Group

stephen.hicks@ndcn.ox.ac.uk

DCN NLO

Winner of 5 awards including the 2013 Royal Society Award for Innovation

Developing smart glasses for registered blind individuals

Recently seen on BBC TV

We are developing a set of 'smart' electronic glasses (‘smart specs’) to enhance sight for the visually impaired.

Experimental prototype of ‘smart glasses’ to enhance vision for poorly sighted individuals. This system has a see-through display and a special type of camera that can detect and highlight nearby objects.

We work on the development and experimental validation of a set of 'smart' electronic glasses to improve the sight of the visually impaired.

Dr Hicks' work is truly inspirational; his invention has the potential to transform the lives of many. - Professor Anthony Cheetham, Vice President and Treasurer of the Royal Society

Most legally blind people still have some residual vision, and this is exploited by the smart glasses. By using information from a depth camera as well as computer vision strategies to reduce the complex visual scene to its most basic, task-relevant elements, the smart glasses allow severely visually impaired people to get more information from their residual vision, and maintain a greater degree of independence.

We are based in the OcuLab at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, and work in close collaboration with the Torr Vision group in the department of Engineering.

Our team

Current Trials

Trial One – Obstacle awareness and avoidance in low light. In this study, poorly sighted participants with any condition are being asked to use a prototype set of smart glasses to navigate a small obstacle course. This study is supported by the NIHR i4i program
Trial Two (in preparation) – Take-home trial of a portable smart glasses system. Towards the end of 2014 we expect to make available a number of pairs of smart glasses for people to use in their daily lives. We are interested in how the glasses can help in everyday activities.
Trial Three (in preparation) – Face enhancement using smart glasses. We have suggestive evidence that one of prototypes can help improve face detection for people with central scotomas such as those with macular degeneration. We will be exploring this intriguing finding with a new experiment later this year.

Smart Glasses Testing

We are keen to learn what it is like to use these glasses in daily life. We are preparing to build a new highly portable model and loan it out to volunteers for a period of time. If you are interested in finding out more the program, including volunteering, please write to info@smart-specs.com with your contact details and you will be contacted in the future. Thank you.

Research Projects

Thank you to everyone who took part in our survey on daily activities. We are now collating the data which will help direct our future research.

Real world enhanced vision

The team recently demonstrated their latest prototype glasses at the Covered Market in Oxford. This new version provides a focused central image which may be useful for enhancing details in nearby objects, such as items on a table or people's faces. Stephen is wearing the glasses, and the image he is seeing is displayed on the laptop nearby.

Hannah Thompson's blog describes her experience trying out our latest headset in the Covered Market in Oxford.

Stephen wearing glasses

TEDx talk

RNIB video

In Touch on Radio 4

Our work was recently discussed on Radio 4's In Touch programme (2014). Johny Cassidy and Red (who is affected by retinitis pigmentosa) came up to our lab to find out more about the glasses and try them out for themselves. They were pleasantly surprised. Have a listen to the programme here.

BBC Radio 4