Computer simulator allows visually impaired to drive
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- Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 21:32:37 -0400
University of Granada, Spain via Innovations Report
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Computer simulator allows visually impaired to drive
By Antonio Marín Ruiz
-Scientists from the Universities of Granada and Murcia have created a
pioneering device, known as SERBA (in Spanish, Reconfigurable Electric-Optical
System for Low Vision), which improves the vision of sight impaired patients.
-This reconfigurable platform, which will be updateable via the Internet, is
especially useful for pathologies that can lead to blindness (Macular
Degeneration, cataracts, Retinitis Pigmentosa, etc.)
C@MPUS DIGITAL A team of researchers from the University of Granada, in
collaboration with the University of Murcia, has developed a visual aid device
which significantly improves the vision of sight impaired patients; especially
those suffering from pathologies with a slow progression that can eventually
lead to blindness (such as Macular Degeneration, cataracts, etc.). This
platform, called SERBA (in Spanish, Reconfigurable Electric-optical System for
Low Vision), is the first visual aid unit which is very useful in all
circumstances and for all tasks, independently of the degree of impairment of
the patient. Up to now, in the majority of cases, people with impaired vision
had to acquire various different devices to meet all their needs.
The main contribution of this project - undertaken by Mª Dolores Peláez Coca
and led by professors Fernando Vargas Martín and Eduardo Ros Vidal, all from
the University of Granada (Universidad de Granada) - is the implementation of a
new optoelectronic platform (based on a reconfigurable device known as FPGA)
which is easily reprogrammed so that it can be used in different circumstances.
This device will help patients, among other things, to improve their vision
when driving.
This platform, as the creator of the research explains, is based on the design
of a real-time video processing system able to store several image processing
algorithms. "Thanks to the use of a FPGA it is a very flexible device which can
be adapted to the user's needs and to the evolution of their disease". Eight
patients suffering from Retinitis Pigmentosa (a visual impairment that reduces
the field of vision) took part in the device's assessment, as well as six
others with different pathologies that generate a ºloss of sharpness of vision.
Updating through the Internet
The program is stored in the internal memory of the prototype board and the
selection of the dump algorithm in the FPGA is carried out automatically. In
this way, the images are shown in a transparent viewfinder, similar to those
used in the army. With this system, there is no need to purchase a new platform
so as to adapt it to the changes that are produced in the disease's
development; it is enough simply to update the programmes recorded in the
device's memory. This update can be carried out through the Internet, so the
support and travelling expenses can be reduced considerably.
So as to prove the viability of the project, researchers from the University of
Granada have developed three different image processing computer programmes:
edge enhancement, three different kinds of digital zoom lens and the
implementation of an augmented view scheme system.
The main advantage of SERBA is that it is easily reconfigured and that it also
offers, in researchers' own words, a "technological convergence", as it
includes light low-cost cameras, real time image processing and transparent
portable viewfinders.
A driving video game
This visual aid system designed by scientists from the University of Granada
and the University of Murcia has contributed to the creation of bioptical
telescopes, anamorphic systems and inverted telescopes that magnify the
patient's visibility as it implements zoom lens effects, edge enhancement and
edge multiplexing to expand the field of vision. Moreover, a driving video game
(with some enlargements in some areas of the image) has been developed to
simulate the visual aids previously mentioned. The selection of the area to
magnify is supplied by a Head Tracker that the subject carries in a cap.
Several companies have already shown their interest in commercialising this
system created by the University of Granada, as SERBA is improving the
sharpness of vision and contrast sensitivity, apart from offering an effective
field of vision for very restricted visual fields and facilitating the
subject's mobility.
Some of the results of this research have been published in the prestigious
journals "Lecture Notes in Computer Science" and "International Congress
Series".
Reference:
http://prensa.ugr.es/prensa/research/verNota/prensa.php?nota=480
Mª Dolores Peláez Coca. Departamento de Arquitectura y Tecnología de
Computadores of the University of Granada. Tel: 00 34 968 398 317.
Email: m-ola@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/informationstechnologie/bericht-92932.html
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