Researchers at Schepens Eye Research Institute at Harvard are working on software for digital televisions that will let them produce a higher contrast picture specifically for the visually impaired.
Working within the “decoder” that makes digital television images possible, Peli and his colleagues were able to make a simple change that could give every digital TV the contrast enhancing potential for the benefit of the visually impaired. “The same modification could easily be made to new HDTVs, and digital cable set top boxes,” says Matthew Fullerton, the paper’s first author, and a student of electronic engineering from the University of York in England who is currently working on his Master’s degree in Peli’s lab.
To test their new technology, the team presented eight digital videos to 24 subjects with vision impairment and six with normal vision. Each patient was given a remote control, which allowed him/her to increase or decrease the contrast of the image. Patients manipulated over-enhanced and blurry images for the greatest clarity.
The research team learned that even subjects with normal sight selected some enhancement and that the amount of enhancement selected by those with visual problems varied depending upon the level of contrast sensitivity loss they experienced due to their disease. All this demonstrated to the team that the device was both usable and useful to the subjects, even those without vision problems.
Peli is now working with Analog Devices Inc. to create a prototype chip that could be included in all future generations of digital television. “The technology we created is quite simple and can easily and cheaply be incorporated into even the newest technologies for television and internet video.”
Study page at Schepens Eye Research Institute…
Video enhancement example videos…
Press release: Technique Enhances Digital Television Viewing for Visually Impaired …
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