It’s been an exciting week for science and technology with the Science Uncovered event taking place at the Natural History Museum here in London. There have been some really exciting innovations on show, but one that caught our eye (pardon the pun) was a pair of glasses that can offer hope to thousands of visually impaired people in Britain.

Scientists at the University of Oxford have developed a non-invasive solution for the blind that doesn’t require surgery. The technology is aimed at those who are classed as legally blind but can still see a small amount of light.

The technology works by having a tiny video camera mounted onto a pair of glasses, which relays information to a small computer in the user’s pocket. The computer recognises objects or people and relays the information to the lenses via tiny LED lights. People would see a bright light within the lenses themselves to indicate an object; the brightness of the light would then indicate how close or how far away the object was and that may be enough for the wearer to navigate their way around.

Pretty exciting stuff, eh?