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New treatments for 2015

This week: A headset to help with sight loss.

MICROSOFT has developed a headset that helps those with poor sight to navigate towns and cities.

The headset uses GPS mapping data, as well as sending out special beams to detect nearby obstacles such as lamp-posts, so it can help the wearer safely walk around the streets by giving audio cues. It has already undergone early trials, and will be offered to a wider group of people this year. The charity Guide Dogs, which helped develop the technology, said it could help improve lives.

‘We have shown that the system works and now more work needs to be done to refine it,’ says Liz Marshall, the charity’s senior communications officer.