{"id":77130,"date":"2025-08-18T09:54:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T09:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/77130\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T09:54:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T09:54:09","slug":"im-blind-meta-ai-glasses-allow-me-to-work-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/77130\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;I&#8217;m blind &#8211; Meta AI glasses allow me to work again&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Leigh Boobyer<\/p>\n<p>BBC News, Bristol<\/p>\n<p>Joe Sims<\/p>\n<p>BBC Radio Bristol presenter<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755510732_879_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/64332790-7792-11f0-907d-6ff0082c2def.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"Andy Evans Andy Evans is standing on a pavement in front of a stone wall, wearing a hat and a backpack. In his hand is a white cane, and he is wearing the AI glasses, looking at the camera.\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/>Andy Evans<\/p>\n<p>Andy Evans is now working for a sight loss support charity<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">A man who has returned to work a year after being registered blind says new AI glasses have been &#8220;life-changing&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Andy Evans, 57, who lives in Larkhall near Bath, became unemployed after leaving his job working nights at a Morrison&#8217;s supermarket due to his sight loss.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">However, he says he now has a &#8220;much better quality of life&#8221; since buying the glasses, which have a camera in their frame and tiny speakers in the arms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Mr Evans, who uses a white cane, said he can order food in a restaurant again and find out &#8220;what obstacles are in the path in front of me&#8221; by asking his glasses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">The Ray-Ban glasses by Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, are voice-activated, and the user can talk to their built-in artificial intelligence technology to perform tasks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">In the UK, a selection of celebrity voices can be chosen to speak to those who wear the glasses. Mr Evans said he has <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c6258zn1663o\" class=\"sc-f9178328-0 bGFWdi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Dame Judi Dench<\/a>, who he said calls him James Bond and 007.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">He has now returned to work, helping people adjust to sight loss at the Sight Support West of England charity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;I was really stuck doing a lot of things,&#8221; he told BBC Radio Bristol.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;What you can do, you can ask them to look and tell you what&#8217;s going on around you. It&#8217;s life-changing technology.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755510732_879_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2a102490-79c3-11f0-a1b4-c7dc30ddd605.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Getty Images A pair of Ray Ban glasses which has the logo in the glass, and in the frame is a little camera.\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/>Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The glasses have a tiny camera built in, along with speakers and technology which speaks back to the user<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Robin Spinks, head of inclusive design at the Royal National Institute of Blind People, said the glasses are an example of technology making &#8220;a real tangible impact for blind and partially sighted people&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Mr Spinks is also registered blind and said: &#8220;I use these glasses every day. Getting a description of a room or a scene on the beach or even a zoo enclosure is quite transformational. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;AI is advancing rapidly, and the market for smart glasses is still in its infancy. But the potential is enormous.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leigh Boobyer BBC News, Bristol Joe Sims BBC Radio Bristol presenter Andy Evans Andy Evans is now working&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-77130","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}