Virtual reality as a means to explore assistive technologies for the visually impaired
Visual impairment represents a significant health and economic burden affecting 596 million globally. The incidence of visual impairment is expected to double by 2050 as our population ages. Independent navigation is challenging for persons with visual impairment, as they often rely on non-visual se...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2023-06-01
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| Series: | PLOS Digital Health |
| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10281573/?tool=EBI |
| _version_ | 1827828765694099456 |
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| author | Fabiana Sofia Ricci Alain Boldini Xinda Ma Mahya Beheshti Duane R. Geruschat William H. Seiple John-Ross Rizzo Maurizio Porfiri |
| author_facet | Fabiana Sofia Ricci Alain Boldini Xinda Ma Mahya Beheshti Duane R. Geruschat William H. Seiple John-Ross Rizzo Maurizio Porfiri |
| author_sort | Fabiana Sofia Ricci |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Visual impairment represents a significant health and economic burden affecting 596 million globally. The incidence of visual impairment is expected to double by 2050 as our population ages. Independent navigation is challenging for persons with visual impairment, as they often rely on non-visual sensory signals to find the optimal route. In this context, electronic travel aids are promising solutions that can be used for obstacle detection and/or route guidance. However, electronic travel aids have limitations such as low uptake and limited training that restrict their widespread use. Here, we present a virtual reality platform for testing, refining, and training with electronic travel aids. We demonstrate the viability on an electronic travel aid developed in-house, consist of a wearable haptic feedback device. We designed an experiment in which participants donned the electronic travel aid and performed a virtual task while experiencing a simulation of three different visual impairments: age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma. Our experiments indicate that our electronic travel aid significantly improves the completion time for all the three visual impairments and reduces the number of collisions for diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma. Overall, the combination of virtual reality and electronic travel aid may have a beneficial role on mobility rehabilitation of persons with visual impairment, by allowing early-phase testing of electronic travel aid prototypes in safe, realistic, and controllable settings. Author summary Testing electronic travel aids under development is an outstanding research area, due to the rapid growth in the number of people with visual impairment. For decades, different technologies have been employed to improve the mobility of persons with visual impairment, but suitable and easy-to-use solutions have not yet been established. In this study, we propose the use of virtual reality for early-phase testing of electronic travel aids in safe, realistic, and controllable settings. We demonstrate the approach using an haptic feedback device developed in-house in the form of a belt. Our device can be simply wear by a user, providing free hands and real-time operation. The approach offers the combined possibility of designing highly realistic, urban environments and of simulating different forms of visual impairment on healthy subjects. Our integrated wearable electronic travel aid/virtual reality system establishes a novel assistive framework to mitigate the consequences of visual impairment. We envision this framework could improve training, reduce rehabilitation, and abate societal costs, while creating an engaging and compelling experience for persons with visual impairment. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T03:54:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-00d46184ec8e4e4da4359883e63d4885 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2767-3170 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T03:54:20Z |
| publishDate | 2023-06-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLOS Digital Health |
| spelling | doaj.art-00d46184ec8e4e4da4359883e63d48852023-09-03T12:01:16ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLOS Digital Health2767-31702023-06-0126Virtual reality as a means to explore assistive technologies for the visually impairedFabiana Sofia RicciAlain BoldiniXinda MaMahya BeheshtiDuane R. GeruschatWilliam H. SeipleJohn-Ross RizzoMaurizio PorfiriVisual impairment represents a significant health and economic burden affecting 596 million globally. The incidence of visual impairment is expected to double by 2050 as our population ages. Independent navigation is challenging for persons with visual impairment, as they often rely on non-visual sensory signals to find the optimal route. In this context, electronic travel aids are promising solutions that can be used for obstacle detection and/or route guidance. However, electronic travel aids have limitations such as low uptake and limited training that restrict their widespread use. Here, we present a virtual reality platform for testing, refining, and training with electronic travel aids. We demonstrate the viability on an electronic travel aid developed in-house, consist of a wearable haptic feedback device. We designed an experiment in which participants donned the electronic travel aid and performed a virtual task while experiencing a simulation of three different visual impairments: age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma. Our experiments indicate that our electronic travel aid significantly improves the completion time for all the three visual impairments and reduces the number of collisions for diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma. Overall, the combination of virtual reality and electronic travel aid may have a beneficial role on mobility rehabilitation of persons with visual impairment, by allowing early-phase testing of electronic travel aid prototypes in safe, realistic, and controllable settings. Author summary Testing electronic travel aids under development is an outstanding research area, due to the rapid growth in the number of people with visual impairment. For decades, different technologies have been employed to improve the mobility of persons with visual impairment, but suitable and easy-to-use solutions have not yet been established. In this study, we propose the use of virtual reality for early-phase testing of electronic travel aids in safe, realistic, and controllable settings. We demonstrate the approach using an haptic feedback device developed in-house in the form of a belt. Our device can be simply wear by a user, providing free hands and real-time operation. The approach offers the combined possibility of designing highly realistic, urban environments and of simulating different forms of visual impairment on healthy subjects. Our integrated wearable electronic travel aid/virtual reality system establishes a novel assistive framework to mitigate the consequences of visual impairment. We envision this framework could improve training, reduce rehabilitation, and abate societal costs, while creating an engaging and compelling experience for persons with visual impairment.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10281573/?tool=EBI |
| spellingShingle | Fabiana Sofia Ricci Alain Boldini Xinda Ma Mahya Beheshti Duane R. Geruschat William H. Seiple John-Ross Rizzo Maurizio Porfiri Virtual reality as a means to explore assistive technologies for the visually impaired PLOS Digital Health |
| title | Virtual reality as a means to explore assistive technologies for the visually impaired |
| title_full | Virtual reality as a means to explore assistive technologies for the visually impaired |
| title_fullStr | Virtual reality as a means to explore assistive technologies for the visually impaired |
| title_full_unstemmed | Virtual reality as a means to explore assistive technologies for the visually impaired |
| title_short | Virtual reality as a means to explore assistive technologies for the visually impaired |
| title_sort | virtual reality as a means to explore assistive technologies for the visually impaired |
| url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10281573/?tool=EBI |
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