Virtual and Augmented Reality Device Simulates Vision Loss

摘要

Researchers have demonstrated how commercially available head-mounted displays (HMDs) can be used to simulate the day-to-day challenges faced by people with glaucoma. Glaucoma is an umbrella term for a group of degenerative eye diseases that affects the optic nerve at the back of the eye. It is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. Potential applications of the technology could include helping policymakers better assess the impact of visual impairment on patients and helping architects to design more accessible buildings. Twenty-two volunteers who did not have glaucoma took part in the study. Participants wore a HMD while performing various tasks in either virtual or augmented reality. In the virtual reality task, participants were placed in a simulation of a typical "cluttered" house. Moving their eyes and head allowed them to look around it in order to find a mobile phone hidden somewhere in the house. In the augmented reality task, participants navigated a real-life, human-sized "mouse maze" that they viewed through cameras in the front of the HMD.