A pair of chunky black frames has picked up a £1 million prize, with its makers arguing the software inside could help people with dementia get through everyday life with more support and more independence.
The artificial intelligence software, called CrossSense, can be embedded into smart glasses that include a camera, microphone and speakers. Through a chatty assistant called Wispy, it guides wearers using verbal cues and text that floats in front of their eyes.
Wispy can prompt people through tasks and give feedback as they go. It can also ask questions, engage in light conversation and help with reminiscences.
The technology has won the Longitude Prize on Dementia, one of a number of awards designed and delivered by Challenge Works and supported by Nesta. Funded by Alzheimer’s Society and Innovate UK, the prize was set up to encourage the development of technology to help people with dementia stay independent for longer.
About 150 million people globally are expected to be living with dementia by 2050.
According to the Guardian, Szczepan Orlins, chief executive of CrossSense Ltd, said the prize money would help the company bring the product to market. He said a smartphone version would be available at the end of this year, while CrossSense-enabled smart glasses were expected to be available in early 2027.
Orlins said CrossSense Ltd provides the AI software and has been working with frames made by various hardware companies. The frames can be fitted with prescription lenses and are compatible with hearing aids.
“With the prize, we will be running a pilot with smart glasses in the last quarter [of 2026] for four weeks in people’s homes, which would give us enough data to know that this is ready,” Orlins said.
He said information, including the level of care a wearer needs, could be entered through an accompanying app. Wispy then uses machine learning to adapt to users’ needs, including changes in their condition.
CrossSense is expected to cost about £50 a month on subscription. The smart glasses themselves cost up to £1,000, although Orlins said they may become cheaper. The company plans to market the CrossSense-enabled smart glasses directly to consumers at first, with the aim of eventually making them available through the NHS.
Prof Julia Simner, of the University of Sussex, was the science lead for the team and tested CrossSense with 23 pairs of people living with dementia and their carers. She said the study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, found participants with dementia could correctly name 46 percent of household items without the smart glasses.
With the glasses, that figure rose to 82 percent.
“Crucially, the benefit lasted even after the glasses were removed,” Simner said, adding that an hour after taking the glasses off the figure was 78 percent.
For Carole Greig, 70, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s almost three years ago and has tested the CrossSense-empowered glasses, the technology has made an impression.
“For people with the condition like mine who’ve got cognitive impairment, it’s just an amazing thing,” she said, according to the Guardian. “How fantastic that we can be given some more independence, that we’re going to be able to cope on our own and not be a burden. And not only that, it’s not just [not] being a burden, it’s enjoying your life.”
