Mental health smart glasses are being developed to help people with serious mental health conditions navigate everyday tasks, beginning with the ancient domestic challenge of locating an object and accepting that it is not personally disappointed in you.
The technology is part of 17 immersive technology projects sharing £3.6 million from Innovate UK. Developers say the glasses could recognise household objects and provide step by step prompts through a connected app, giving ordinary chores the sort of operational support usually reserved for launching satellites or assembling furniture designed by an enemy.
The project is still being built and will be trialled over the next 12 to 18 months. Until then, the kettle remains free to occupy the kitchen without declaring whether the wearer is reaching their potential. It has declined to comment, probably because it is an appliance.
CrossSense, the London company developing the glasses, is working on tools for people experiencing conditions including severe depression, anxiety, psychosis and memory difficulties. The system may offer safety advice, including prompts to stay away from boiling water on the hob. This is reassuring news for anyone whose morning routine has already escalated to a negotiation with a saucepan.
‘Object detected: laundry,’ said Dr Pixel, Chief Optician of Manageable Mornings. ‘Recommended action: acknowledge it exists, then downgrade urgency to Thursday.’
Another project would let young people edit photographs into calming visual material for therapy. The programme is therefore using advanced technology to help people confront reality, while the announcement uses advanced language to avoid looking directly at the fact that the technology is not ready yet.
The glasses will be tested on daily challenges, household hazards and the complicated emotional landscape between the mug cupboard and the front door. Developers will also have to solve the charger problem, which is hiding somewhere outside the field of view and demonstrating a level of therapeutic resistance no app has yet been funded to address.
Once the wearer has found the keys, completed the task and safely made tea, the system will issue its final instruction: locate the glasses. They will be on the wearer’s face, laughing along with the researchers and quietly awarding themselves the funding.
Real story: Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
