Public Funding for Oxsight Ltd

In 2010 the founders of OXSIGHT began their research at the University of Oxford. They worked closely with the low-vision community, undertaking research to understand how the brain manages visual information. They gained international recognition for their ground-breaking work and were invited to talk at prestigious events around the world. In 2016 OXSIGHT was established to develop this knowledge into innovative solutions for sight degeneration that have a perfect balance of style, functionality and intuitive technology. Its success has meant the team has grown substantially and the aim that unites OXSIGHT now, as it did when the research began, is to transform lives by putting people with visual impairment back in control of their vision. OXSIGHT has built a team of scientists and clinicians that combine a deep understanding of neuroscience, ophthalmology, computer vision and machine learning. They are constantly looking at new ideas and researching ways to improve the lives of people with visual impairment. OXSIGHT has worked in partnership with leading global players from both the sight impaired community and the technology sector, including Google, RNIB, Guide Dogs Association, The University of Oxford, NIHR i4i and The Royal Academy of Engineering. OXSIGHT is developing smart glasses that allow people who are visually impaired but have some residual vision to make better use of what sight they do have. After years of R&D, iterations and prototypes OXSIGHT has currently three products: * Prism & Crystal, designed for peripheral vision loss (tunnel vision); and * Onyx, which targets people living with central vision loss. Dodrotu is a UK-based information technology company established in 2019, with focus on fusing functional programming, augmented communication and AI. Founders of Dodrotu worked in the fields of optimisation, computational linguistics and signal processing for over a decade, successfully commercialised some of the results from their PhD research while at the University of Cambridge and in 2020 won a grant from Oxford University Innovation to develop novel AI assistant. Dodrotu will partner with OXSIGHT to create OXSIGHT AVA---an online AI assistant that will deliver tailored visual and audio experiences in order to help its user connect with their physical and social environments. OXSIGHT AVA will increase social inclusion and promote independence in navigation and interaction with surroundings for millions of visually impaired; the product will also benefit excluded minorities with learning difficulties and sensory input disorders. With these advancements OXSIGHT AVA represents a truly inclusive and equalising technology.

In 2016 OXSIGHT was established to develop this knowledge into innovative solutions for sight degeneration that have a perfect balance of style, functionality and intuitive technology. OXSIGHT worked closely with the low-vision community, undertaking research to understand how the brain manages visual information. We gained international recognition for our ground-breaking work. OXSIGHT was recognised as an minicorn (future unicorn) by Tracnx and 'top emerging start-up' in the wearable category. Onyx our second generation product has already generated significant interest and has been covered by a number of print and digital media articles https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/man-rare-sight-condition-see-19153958#r3z-addoor We have built a team of scientists and clinicians that combine a deep understanding of neuroscience, ophthalmology, computer vision and machine learning. They are constantly looking at new ideas and researching ways to improve the lives of people with visual impairment. We have worked in partnership with leading global players from both the sight impaired community and the technology sector, including Google, RNIB, Guide Dogs Association, The University of Oxford, NIHR Invention for Innovation (i4i), and The Royal Academy of Engineering. We are developing smart-glasses that allow people who are visually impaired but have some residual vision to make better use of what sight they do have. After years of R&D, iterations and prototypes we have currently three products: • Prism & Crystal-1, designed for peripheral vision loss (tunnel vision), which people with Glaucoma and Retinitis Pigmentosa typically suffer from. Crystal provides a magnetically attachable set of shades to block or reduce ambient light to make the transparent display easier to see. • Onyx, which targets people living with central vision loss (blind spot) conditions such as Age Related Macular Degeneration, will be released in 2021. Crystal-2 Our third-generation product Crystal-2 is highly innovative and a game changer. Crystal-2 will not only have better displays and camera but will be driven by our next-generation machine vision platform offering remote visual data processing protocol allowing off-loading of power hungry operations to a server/cloud thereby enhancing the functionality, form factor, elegance and comfort of our smart glasses - vital for increased adoption across industry sectors.