SMART glasses made in Oxford which allow the blind to see could be on the market for the price of a mobile phone this time next year.

The glasses detect how near or far objects are and paint a picture of the world in front of the user.

The Royal Academy of Engineers has just given the project at Oxford University £85,000 to take them from the lab to the market.

Team leader Dr Stephen Hicks, of the Nuffield department of clinical neurosciences, said: “Someone with macular degeneration will see a general grey smearing, but if you shone a bright light in their vision they can detect it.

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“You don’t need much information for your brain to make up an image.”

Since the National Institute for Health Research set the project running four years ago with £650,000 backing, an anonymous individual has invested another £500,000.

Dr Hicks said he now hoped to be able to set up a private company within six months and begin manufacturing early next year. He estimated the first pairs of smart glasses would cost about £500, in the same range as a smart phone.