IBM’s Research division filed several new patents this year, one of the more interesting ones — glasses that not only help you see, but actually transform what you see – a “Head-mounted display content transformer”.
It may sound like science fiction, but donning these glasses enables a person to see a Hebrew street sign in English or correct the vision of a color-blind person to “see” the right traffic light colors.

This invention describes devices and methods that can help people process images and text. More specifically, it can simplify text for those who may have a learning disability, assist individuals with color blindness, and enable a person to see translated language. All of this is accomplished with glasses or goggles that actually transform the content that an individual sees.
“I was in Haifa for work and had a hard time finding my way around because I could not read the street signs,” said Sorensen, one of the inventors. “Something of a science fiction fan, it occurred to me that a simple combination of a number of technologies that IBM was working on could be used to solve this very real problem.”
While seamlessly being able to read a language you don’t know is a long way off, Sorensen felt that even a partial solution would help a great deal.