A Belmont North woman has become one of the first people in Australia to trial new smart glasses that use artificial intelligence to help visually-impaired people.
Eunice English was given a free trial of the glasses, which cost about $5000.
"My impaired vision is steadily declining due to cataracts and macular degeneration," Mrs English said.
"I am blind in my left eye and partly blind in my right."
She sees straight lines as wiggly and only two thirds of a line of numbers or words.
"For example, I only see part of printed words and sometimes I misread times for appointments," she said.
She is on a waiting list for a cataract operation, but this won't stop the progress of macular degeneration.
"I have injections into that eye every two months at a cost of $500, less a Medicare rebate, to keep things at bay."
The smart glasses don't improve vision, but help the visually-impaired to live a better life.
They send information to the wearer through speech.
The glasses have been described as "artificial intelligence for the eye".
They are fitted with a tiny camera and software.
"It reads what's in front of you and reads that back to you," she said.
"When I trialled the glasses, they read medicine bottles, a recipe and a family history that was handwritten.
"They're simple things, but in day-to-day life they can be very helpful."
Blindness products consultant Sam Taylor helped Mrs English conduct the trial, as part of a Vision Australia program on technology.
"Vision Australia has regular webinars where they tell us what is new in the world of technology to help us," Mrs English said.
Mr Taylor said the Envision glasses were "designed for blind and partially sighted people to give them verbal descriptions about their environment".
"It helps them read and to identify faces and connect with loved ones," he said.
"There have been other attempts in this space, but similar developments have been more expensive."
Some of these products had batteries that "last nowhere near the time of the Envision glasses."
Mr Taylor said the glasses would enable Mrs English, for example, to "have a book or magazine read to her".
It helps differentiate tins and boxes of food, read signs like bus stops and timetables and find the TV remote.
"I can never find the TV remote," Mrs English said, with a giggle.
The glasses allow the wearer to call friends and family to remotely view what the camera is seeing.
Mr Taylor said this "phone-a-friend feature" enabled trusted people to help in real time.
"This is like Facetime, only hands-free."
Mrs English said her loss of vision had become life altering, despite ongoing treatment for more than 10 years.
She hoped the glasses would be "life changing for me and many others".
"As a former artist as well as a writer, I am hoping these will help bring back some of my lost confidence in getting around," she said.
"I need a reason to get out there and interact with people again. My mobility is becoming limited.
"For the first time in my very independent life I am having to ask for help, which has been really hard."
After trying on the glasses, she "soon got the hang of tapping or sliding on the right arm of the glasses to bring up the various parts of the app".
"It's not virtual reality, it is real reality with all the problems that can bring."
She said the glasses would "certainly help me get out and about more".
"I would probably use them for certain important tasks like reading letters, checking medication labels, bills and recipes, plus facial recognition.
"With macular degeneration, I can't see faces."
She said it was "awesome having a voice read out something I was looking at, but could not decipher".
"Sam, who is totally blind, gets a lot of benefit from the glasses. For young, totally blind people this is a pretty cool way of getting about."
She said the trial had given her hope that, "as my sight continues to decrease, there are these glasses or similar to help out".
Andreas Buchmueller, of Vision Australia, said "mind-blowing technology" was now available to blind and low-vision clients.
Mr Buchmueller said the Envision glasses were "not the first of their kind, but they are a worthy competitor to the established OrCam My Eye device".
"Both Envision and OrCam have a small camera that uses recognition software," he said.
"The OrCam My Eye is a standalone device that can be attached to any glasses, whereas the Envision glasses are essentially Google Glass with the Envision AI technology in-built.
"For full functionality, the Envision glasses require you to use a smartphone, whereas the OrCam My Eye does not."
He said technologies like object recognition, barcode scanning for product recognition, face recognition and video calling for help were already available in various forms, such as apps on smartphones.
The main advantage of wearable cameras is they are hands-free. This is particularly helpful for those holding a mobility cane, a guide dog or bag while trying to read a sign, product label or a timetable for a bus or train.
"These gadgets and technologies are life-changing to low vision and blind users, as they allow for independence where it was not possible before," he said.
