3D Printing to Help the Visually Impaired See

Overview

We met up with Dr. Stephen Hicks of Oxford University back in 2011 for a project with immense potential… a project to help the partially sighted to see again via augmented reality.

The design is not to give sight back, rather to take advantage of what sight the user has. It does this by sensing both depth and movement. Cameras and sensors pick up the objects in the room, they then display the objects on a transparent OLED screen in a more basic colour and apply brightness to the objects that are closer and darken the objects that are further away, thus giving depth perception to the user that before would have been a blur. this greatly increases the users spacial awareness allowing them to navigate places like busy high streets with greater ease and awareness.

For more information, please have a look at Dr. Steve’s slideshow or the article from WIRED