Abstract
This paper describes a new mobility aid for people with severe visual impairments which combines technology from the field of virtual reality with advanced computer vision techniques. A neural-network classifier is used to identify objects in images from a head mounted camera so that scene content specifically important for mobility may be made more visible. Enhanced images are displayed to the user on a head mounted display using a high saturation colour scheme where each type of object has a different colour, resulting in images which are highly visible and easy to interpret. The object classifier achieves a level of accuracy over 90%. Results from a pilot study conducted using people with a range of visual impairments are presented in which performance on a difficult mobility-related task was improved by over 100% using the system.
Highlights
Many people who are registered as blind retain some residual vision, and are said to have “low vision”
The precise form of visual impairment varies according to the particular medical condition it results from, but often a person with low vision experiences an extreme loss of perception of high spatial frequencies resulting in gross blurring of the visual scene over a significant area of their field of view
With the development of head mounted displays and cameras for the virtual reality field, work has attempted to apply these devices to the needs of users with low vision in combination with computer image processing techniques
Summary
Many people who are registered as blind retain some residual vision, and are said to have “low vision”. The precise form of visual impairment varies according to the particular medical condition it results from, but often a person with low vision experiences an extreme loss of perception of high spatial frequencies resulting in gross blurring of the visual scene over a significant area of their field of view. With the development of head mounted displays and cameras for the virtual reality field, work has attempted to apply these devices to the needs of users with low vision in combination with computer image processing techniques. As technology for virtual reality applications has advanced, several researchers have investigated the application of this technology to the needs of people with impairments affecting mobility, in particular the use of head-mounted displays. Goodrich and Zwern (Goodrich and Zwern, 1995) used a commercial head mounted display to provide variable magnification and contrast adjustment of images
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