App for visually impaired uses Google Glass to navigate screen

The app, developed primarily for the visually impaired, projects a magnified image of the screen to the Google Glass display. Images are sent using Bluetooth, and the user can interact with them by tapping on the stem of the Google Glass device.

Rather than continually zooming in and out by pinching and swiping on a smartphone, users move their heads around to examine different areas of the screen. According to the researchers, many of those with low vision find the traditional tactile zoom functions on smartphones difficult to use, as they result in a loss of context.

"When people with low visual acuity zoom in on their smartphones, they see only a small portion of the screen, and it's difficult for them to navigate around - they don't know whether the current position is in the centre of the screen or in the corner of the screen," said senior author of the study Gang Luo, associate scientist at the Schepens Eye Research Institute and an associate professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School.