A pair of glasses has enabled a blind man to read for the very first time in 20 years. The high-tech specs are the invention of OR-Cam, an intuitive wearable device with a smart camera, is designed to assist people who have a visual impairment.

Luke Hines, aged 27, became blind in one eye and has only 3 per cent vision in the otherafter he underwent an operation to remove a brain tumor in 1997. In an interview with The Sun newspaper, Luke, from Devon, England said: “Something as simple as going to Tesco I used to hate doing because I would just go, get the same things every time and get out of there.” However, with his new specs, shopping has now become a completely different experience. “Now I can spend hours up there just trying to read everything. It’s really nice being able to do it without having to rely on someone else.”

The Or-Cam device is a small camera that can be worn in the same way as Google Glass. It is connected by a thin cable to a portable computer and can fit in the wearer’s pocket. This then clips onto the wearer’s glasses via the use of a magnet, which then offers clear speech as it reads aloud the words or objects pointed to by the user. Priced at just US$2,500 — it recognizes English-language text.

Luke has suffered greatly due to his handicap and was unable to go to school because of his visual impairment. However, life has taken a turn for the better and through the use of Or-Cam, Luke is now able to do so much more. He is hoping to go onto college and eventually become a gardener. In an interview with The Sun, Luke’s mother, Jane Jinen said: “It’s such a delight because if it can give Luke a quality of life that we have got and he can go to college, it would just be overwhelming.”