AI smart glasses to help visually impaired runners take on the London Marathon

Visually impaired runners are using AI-powered smart glasses as they prepare for the London Marathon. The glasses are not designed specifically for sight loss, but their cameras, microphones, speakers, and AI features are being used to provide spoken information about surroundings during training and daily life. Running past Buckingham Palace, Tilly Dowler is preparing for a marathon she once thought was out of reach. She has Stargardt disease, which is a genetic condition that causes progressive loss of central vision, and says she now has around 10 percent useful vision remaining. Dowler only began running in 2025, starting with a couch-to-5K program, before building up distance over the past year. She is now set to run the London Marathon with her boyfriend Ryan, who will act as her guide runner for the race. For her, the goal is not focused on the finishing time. She says, “My main mission was not to run the marathon in a quick time, to get an amazing PB, to do it for them reasons. My mission was to inspire other people with sight loss, not only sight loss, people with other disabilities, or people going through something that they think is really really hard and really tough, and inspire them to believe in themselves, and you can do anything you put your mind to.” Dowler is training using Meta Oakley Vanguard smart glasses. The glasses are standard consumer AI glasses, developed by Meta and Oakley for sports use rather than as a specialist assistive device. They include a forward-facing camera positioned in the center of the frame, built-in microphones, a touchpad on the side arm, open ear speakers, and Meta AI voice control. Meta says its AI glasses can be used hands-free to take photos and videos, make calls, play audio, and ask questions about what the camera is seeing. For blind and partially sighted users, Meta says the glasses can describe surroundings, read text, and identify objects through spoken responses. This article was provided by The Associated Press.