Introduction
For centuries, researchers have been studying how the visually impaired function without their full sense of vision. The United States National Institutes of Health reports that over nine million people in the United States are considered visually impaired (World of Health 1). Visually impaired individuals do not fix their vision with standard glasses or contact lenses; these devices only aid their vision, and the individual will still lack the abilities to perform certain tasks. Visual impairments serve as the functional limitation of an eye or visual system. Those who are visually impaired have the “visual acuity of less than 6/18 but equal to or better than 3/60 in the better eye with best possible correction” (Thylefors 115). The population of visually impaired people suffers daily as they rely on less acute senses such as hearing and touch. Ultimately, The visually impaired individuals feel inferior due to the perceptions the public has toward them. Medical engineers have attempted developing new technologies to assist the visually impaired; however, they have not been too successful in meeting this group’s demands. Augmented reality could effectively serve the needs of the visually impaired, allowing these individuals to visualize and experience the real world with virtual objects. By making augmented reality treatment easily affordable and accessible, we support the visually impaired and help them see.
The Background and Science Behind the Issue
Visually impaired individuals have alterations in their eye structure and surface area, which deteriorates their vision. To see an object, the object is “apprehended through the lens of the particular perceiving brain and the brain must therefore be endowed with an a priori potential to recognize the sensory world” (Axel 234). Essentially, the brain recognizes light signals from what people perceive around them and converts these light signals into images. The light that the brain extracts passes through the lens and then to the retina where photoreceptors transform the information into electrical impulses. The brain interprets this, and in return, allows an individual to gain vision. The brain of a visually impaired receives lesser visual input, and changes not only the overall visual system, but also the structural and functional reorganization of brain regions that support other senses. This brain plasticity “is associated with behavioral changes that are related to how blind individuals use sensory information from the intact senses to build representations of external space to localize tactile and auditory cues” (Petkova 1). Age directly affects visual experience, for those who are younger need visual experience for the development of multisensory integration mechanisms. The main causes of impaired vision “are cataract, trachoma, glaucoma, onchocerciasis, and xerophthalmia; however, insufficient data on blindness from causes such as diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration preclude specific estimations of their global prevalence” (Thylefors 115). The causes range from either trauma, injury, or age.
Society’s Perception and Self Perception of the Visually Impaired
The social experiences of people with low vision can be detrimentally affected by others' misconceptions and negative thoughts, which in turn affects the visually impaired individual’s quality of life. The visually impaired struggle to fit into societal standards, and they experience limitations due to their lack of proper vision. The society itself considers impairments in vision “as the most severe public health problem because its impact on the social and economic wellbeing of an individual is worthless… The negative perceptions about the visually impaired people results in social isolation and refusal of blind from society” (Ghayyor 495). A study done by Sacks reported that adults with low vision have more negative self-perceptions than those who are blind, and those individuals “often struggle through disturbed emotional states, such as anxiety and depression, that are caused, to some extent, by fears about the future and helplessness in the face of tasks that had been merely routine” (Roy and McKay 255). Visual impairment affects an individual’s mental health of “physical functioning, self-esteem, socialization, depression, and emotional distress” and “associated with increased suicide risk” (Matsuguma, Shinichiro, et al 1). Although virtually impaired individuals have built up other senses to compensate for their lack of sight, they still find it easier for tasks to be completed with proper vision. Pam, a 51 year-old "fully adapted blind" woman, presented initially to the Low Vision Service at TEC in February, 2005 for a low vision evaluation and she “expressed the desire to be able to read visually and be able to visually identify objects and colors” (Eubank 193).
Historical Approaches to Helping the Visually Impaired See
Researchers have made inventions and patents to help the visually impaired, but those technologies had limitations. In order for an electronic device to provide object recognition to most fully benefit the visually impaired individual, the device should address at least three criteria. The device should “be portable, so that the visually impaired individual can readily transport the device as desired… provide a flexible and user friendly interface enabling the visually impaired user to activate and control the object recognition functionality of the device… reliably, and do so in real-time, thus enabling the visually impaired user to engage features of his or her present environment (Dialameh 2). Most of the devices that have been created do not fully comply with these guidelines, making the device ineffective for the visually impaired customer. Technological developments, “such as 3G mobile communications, offer exciting possibilities for new types of services which may be of particular benefit to blind and partially sighted people” (Gill 59). These models need to reach the consumer market, but are leveled at high prices. Some visually impaired individuals will not be able to afford these highly-advanced technologies unless they drop down to a lower price. A patent aiding visually impaired users includes interacting with a remote assistant. Ideally, a remote assistant should be able to interact with the visually impaired user's full environment. Others have put forth effort toward enabling interactions between a visually impaired user and a remote assistant. The U.S. Pat. No. 7,864,991 “discusses visually impaired individual wirelessly sending audiovisual information about a situation to an assistant. The assistant can then reply back with a solution to the situation” (Dialameh 2). However, the assistant lacks complete a complete view of the individual's surrounding environment, making the patent ineffective. Other U.S. patent application publication include “a device having surface sensors to the visually impaired person where a remote assistant can observer the person's interaction with the device” and a device “that a visually impaired subject can be connected with a guide where the guide can use multi-modal information about subject's environment to aid the subject, possibly by directing the subject to an object” (Dialameh 2). The assistant is limited to the view provided by the subject and also lacks the ability to acquire additional data about the environment. Augmented reality is the new hope and the future of helping the visually impaired see. An effort should be dedicated to utilizing augmented reality systems to aid visually impaired individuals.
Solution
A potential solution for helping the visually impaired see is a remote assistant that can interact with an augmented reality panorama. Virtual reality is often compared to augmented reality when determining the most effective environment. Both virtual environments, in which real objects are added to virtual ones, replace the surrounding environment by a virtual one. In contrast, augmented reality provides local virtuality. The augmented system plays more of an effective role for the visual sense since it “combines real and virtual objects in a real environment; registers real and virtual objects with each other; and runs interactively, in three dimensions, and in real time” (Van Krevelen 1). Augmented reality differs from virtual reality, for it is not restricted to particular display technologies such as a head-mounted display. The definition itself is not limited to the sense of sight, as AR can and potentially will apply to all senses, including hearing, touch, and smell. Removing real objects by overlaying virtual ones, approaches known as mediated or diminished reality, is also considered augmented reality.
Augmented reality eliminates the limitations indicated in previous technological inventions. The augmented reality panorama would depict a visually impaired person’s environment and its objects. The augmented reality panorama can be built based on sensor data collected via the individual's smart phone, or other sources of ambient data. The assistant can interact with objects, or other aspects augmented reality panorama, and send device commands back to the individual's smart phone to assist the individual or gain further informant about the environment. Thus, there is still a need for remote assistance for visually impaired individuals but with the addition of augmented reality. The finished product must also be low-cost when placed in the market. This device would the criteria the visually impaired desire and would be cost-efficient enough for all visually impaired to purchase.