High-tech enhanced vision for people with one eye

Overview

Almost 1000 people have an artificial eye fitted for the first time each year in the UK. Losing an eye means losing depth vision and peripheral (side) vision. In turn this leads to trouble with everyday tasks such as driving or avoiding obstacles and affects quality of life. So in this project the research team want to find out whether using high-tech wearable computing can give people back some or all of their full field of vision.

Google Glass was the first ‘augmented reality’ wearable computing technology to go on sale. It has a high-definition video camera attached to specialised glasses and projects information and images onto the top right corner. The team is adapting Google Glass so that the camera can film from the side of the artificial eye and project the image so that it can be seen by the good eye.

Results from the project will tell us whether the idea works in principle, based on data from a small group of people. The team will then know whether to go on to do a larger clinical trial. If it works, the technology could improve patient safety and quality of life.