Simulating visibility under reduced acuity and contrast sensitivity

William B. Thompson, Gordon E. Legge, Daniel J. Kersten, Robert A. Shakespeare, Quan Lei

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

Architects and lighting designers have difficulty designing spaces that are accessible to those with low vision, since the complex nature of most architectural spaces requires a site-specific analysis of the visibility of mobility hazards and key landmarks needed for navigation. We describe a method that can be utilized in the architectural design process for simulating the effects of reduced acuity and contrast on visibility. The key contribution is the development of a way to parameterize the simulation using standard clinical measures of acuity and contrast sensitivity. While these measures are known to be imperfect predictors of visual function, they provide a way of characterizing general levels of visual performance that is familiar to both those working in low vision and our target end-users in the architectural and lighting-design communities. We validate the simulation using a letter-recognition task.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)583-593
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of the Optical Society of America A: Optics and Image Science, and Vision
Volume34
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 1 2017

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Optical Society of America.

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