Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014:2014:2597-600.
doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2014.6944154.

Towards photorealistic and immersive virtual-reality environments for simulated prosthetic vision: integrating recent breakthroughs in consumer hardware and software

Marc P Zapf, Paul B Matteucci, Nigel H Lovell, Steven Zheng, Gregg J Suaning

Towards photorealistic and immersive virtual-reality environments for simulated prosthetic vision: integrating recent breakthroughs in consumer hardware and software

Marc P Zapf et al. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2014.

Abstract

Simulated prosthetic vision (SPV) in normally sighted subjects is an established way of investigating the prospective efficacy of visual prosthesis designs in visually guided tasks such as mobility. To perform meaningful SPV mobility studies in computer-based environments, a credible representation of both the virtual scene to navigate and the experienced artificial vision has to be established. It is therefore prudent to make optimal use of existing hardware and software solutions when establishing a testing framework. The authors aimed at improving the realism and immersion of SPV by integrating state-of-the-art yet low-cost consumer technology. The feasibility of body motion tracking to control movement in photo-realistic virtual environments was evaluated in a pilot study. Five subjects were recruited and performed an obstacle avoidance and wayfinding task using either keyboard and mouse, gamepad or Kinect motion tracking. Walking speed and collisions were analyzed as basic measures for task performance. Kinect motion tracking resulted in lower performance as compared to classical input methods, yet results were more uniform across vision conditions. The chosen framework was successfully applied in a basic virtual task and is suited to realistically simulate real-world scenes under SPV in mobility research. Classical input peripherals remain a feasible and effective way of controlling the virtual movement. Motion tracking, despite its limitations and early state of implementation, is intuitive and can eliminate between-subject differences due to familiarity to established input methods.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources

-