Development of Immersive Virtual Reality Environment for Assessment of Functional Vision in people with Low Vision: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Introduction: Virtual Reality technology helps in creating virtual environments for evaluation of visual performance of low vision individuals with holistic experience. The purpose of this study was to develop a virtual reality (VR) platform for the objective assessment of functional vision in patients with low vision in two categories, central and peripheral vision loss . Materials and methods: Focus group discussions (FGD) were organized to understand the difficulties faced on a day to day basis by patients with low vision. Based on the results of the focus group discussions, a virtual bank scenario incorporating specific visual tasks was developed. A pilot study was conducted which involved people with normal vision; low vision Patients secondary to central field loss (CFL) and peripheral field loss (PFL). Each subject completed all the tasks in the objective assessment; the data obtained from the assessment were further analyzed to understand the pattern. Results: Comparing the three groups, there was a significant difference in distance (central field loss was lowest) and near visual angle, and three visual search tasks (peripheral field loss was lowest). In assessing the time taken, peripheral field loss group was again found to take the most time to complete tasks. Conclusion: Based on a newly developed virtual reality platform, assessment of functional vision of specially abled persons could be tested and was inferior to that of normal sighted persons. in a close to realistic environment. Multiple visual tasks were performed in the virtual environment and the visual performance was compared among all three groups of participants. Participants were matched for age and gender. Irrespective of the nature of tasks, visual performance of the normal group seemed significantly better than people with CFL and PFL.

Technologies Supporting Screening Oculomotor Problems: Challenges for Virtual Reality

“…There are only a few studies illustrating the promising use of such technologies, such as prototype tools for identifying vision-related disabilities in patients with glaucoma (e.g., [18,19]). Prototype applications for functional vision assessment have also been investigated; however, these tools focus on patients with low vision and were only tested in lab settings (e.g., [20,21]).…”

“…VR is also a technology that allows supporting vision training [8], which can help train, e.g., stroke patients [22] or the vision of children with OMD [23]. Since many FVPs, and in particular OMDs, can be helped by training [24], to see the effects of the training, this should also incorporate screening possibilities [20,21]. According to our current knowledge, there is no VR application for screening OMD and no VR eye-training application incorporating the possibilities of screening, except an experimental study implementing a laptop-based application to screen FVPs and developing an immersive virtual reality (VR)-based prototype and evaluating its usability [25], motivating this research.…”

51.2: Simulating the Visual Impairment Symptoms of Age‐related Macular Degeneration in Virtual Reality

“…Recently there has been increasing interest in using VR in research based around visual impairments. Some examples include walking canes that work in VR to allow visually impaired people to navigate a virtual world [15], analysing the wayfinding ability of those with glaucoma compared to those with normal vision in VR [16], assessing if VR is a viable assistive technology for the visual impaired (it was found that it can be) [17], and also attempting to develop an objective measure of a person's visual field using VR [18]. Research done related to AMD has investigated creating assistive technologies using VR to help those with AMD by magnifying parts of the user's view to compensate for their vision loss [19].…”