Can extended reality (XR) help people who are blind or visually impaired with their daily lives? Discover more in our 5-minute read on the subject.

2. Envision

Another recent trend has been to use smart glasses as a way of interpreting images and translating them into text. A user can look at an object and have it described to them with the power of AI.

Envision smart glasses are an example of this. They can look at a scene and describe it to you or read text back to you. They can even provide a form of facial recognition to aid conversation.

3. OrCam

OrCam is a camera that clips onto glasses – and OrCamEye is an app that can identify objects in your surroundings. This includes essential objects like text, faces, money, products and even colours.

4. NuEyes Pro

NuEyes Pro is a pair of lightweight smart glasses that's been described as an "electronic virtual prosthesis" for people with visual impairments.

Its features include magnification (up to 12 times), barcode scanning, optical character recognition – which reads out documents for you – and the ability to change the colour and contrast of the scene you're looking at.

The device can be operated either with voice commands or a wireless controller.

5. SightPlus

SightPlus is a VR headset developed by a London-based startup called GiveVision.

Its aim is simple and its execution is effective. It gives people with low vision the opportunity to see clearly – and it achieves this both up close and from afar.

And unlike some of these solutions, it's been put into practice and found to be a winner. Moorfields Eye Hospital in London deployed the device and found that 98% of participants benefitted from it.

6. Improved orientation

If you're blind or have a visual impairment, it's not just that you struggle to see – it's that you can find it hard to orientate yourself. An Italian VR acoustic archery game aims to tackle this problem and boost players' independence in the process.

7. Access to art

Sensory impairments shouldn't mean that people can't experience the world's greatest works of art. That's the principle behind the Prague National Gallery's "Touching Masterpieces" exhibition.

In this innovative bit of programming, people with visual impairments put on a pair of haptic gloves and were able to "see" classic statues including the Venus de Milo and Michelangelo's David.

The glove creates vibrations when it touches virtual objects. These vibrations allow users to explore visual artefacts that would otherwise be out of bounds.

8. Increasing empathy

If you have full vision, can you know what it's like not to? XR doesn't just have the potential to help people with visual impairments – it can also help the people around them to more fully empathise with the challenges they face.

Take John Hull's Notes on Blindness. It exists as both a film and a VR experience. In the latter, the participant enters a world defined by low vision. Guided by Hull's voice, they attempt to decipher blurry images.

Like other apps that attempt to recreate the experience of having autism, dementia or other neurological conditions, Hull's VR project aims to increase the world's understanding of and empathy for blind people.

Final thoughts

It's early days for XR as a virtual assistant for people who are blind or visually impaired. None of these solutions are widely available and many of them are expensive.

But the possibilities are vast – and as innovations continue to be made, we think it's highly likely that they'll become more widespread and more affordable.

Do you want to explore the potential of XR in the assistive technology space? Here at Expand Reality, we stock leading AR and VR headsets, including the Magic Leap 2, Microsoft HoloLens 2 and Meta Quest 3.