Optoelectronic aid for patients with severely restricted visual fields in daylight conditions

Peláez Coca, Mª Dolores ; Sobrado Calvo, Paloma ; Vargas Martín, Fernando

Resumen: In this study we evaluated the immediate effectiveness of an optoelectronic visual field expander in a sample of subjects with retinitis pigmentosa suffering from a severe peripheral visual field restriction. The aid uses the augmented view concept and provides subjects with visual information from outside their visual field. The tests were carried out in daylight conditions. The optoelectronic aid comprises a FPGA (real-time video processor), a wide-angle mini camera and a transparent see-through head-mounted display. This optoelectronic aid is called SERBA (Sistema Electro-óptico Reconfigurable de Ayuda para Baja Visión). We previously showed that, without compromising residual vision, the SERBA system provides information about objects within an area about three times greater on average than the remaining visual field of the subjects [1]. In this paper we address the effects of the device on mobility under daylight conditions with and without SERBA. The participants were six subjects with retinitis pigmentosa. In this mobility test, better results were obtained when subjects were wearing the SERBA system; specifically, both the number of contacts with low-level obstacles and mobility errors decreased significantly. A longer training period with the device might improve its usefulness.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1080/09500340.2011.615952

Año: 2011

Publicado en: JOURNAL OF MODERN OPTICS 58, 19-20 (2011), 1871-1879
ISSN: 0950-0340

Factor impacto JCR: 1.17 (2011)

Categ. JCR: OPTICS rank: 41 / 79 = 0.519 (2011) - Q3 - T2

Tipo y forma: Artículo (PostPrint)