TY - GEN
T1 - Substituting depth for intensity and real-time phosphene rendering
T2 - 33rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS 2011
AU - Lieby, Paulette
AU - Barnes, Nick
AU - McCarthy, Chris
AU - Liu, Nianjun
AU - Dennett, Hugh
AU - Walker, Janine G.
AU - Botea, Viorica
AU - Scott, Adele F.
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - Navigation and way finding including obstacle avoidance is difficult when visual perception is limited to low resolution, such as is currently available on a bionic eye. Depth visualisation may be a suitable alternative. Such an approach can be evaluated using simulated phosphenes with a wearable mobile virtual reality kit. In this paper, we present two novel approaches: (i) an implementation of depth visualisation; and, (ii) novel methods for rapid rendering of simulated phosphenes with an empirical comparison between them. Our new software-based method for simulated phosphene rendering shows large speed improvements, facilitating the display in real-time of a large number of phosphenes with size and brightness dependent on pixel intensity, and with customised output dynamic range. Further, we describe the protocol, navigation environment and system used for visual navigation experiments to evaluate the use of depth on low resolution simulations of a bionic eye perceptual experience. Results for these experiments show that a depth-based representation is effective for navigation, and shows significant advantages over intensity-based approaches when overhanging obstacles are present. The results of the experiments were reported in [1], [2].
AB - Navigation and way finding including obstacle avoidance is difficult when visual perception is limited to low resolution, such as is currently available on a bionic eye. Depth visualisation may be a suitable alternative. Such an approach can be evaluated using simulated phosphenes with a wearable mobile virtual reality kit. In this paper, we present two novel approaches: (i) an implementation of depth visualisation; and, (ii) novel methods for rapid rendering of simulated phosphenes with an empirical comparison between them. Our new software-based method for simulated phosphene rendering shows large speed improvements, facilitating the display in real-time of a large number of phosphenes with size and brightness dependent on pixel intensity, and with customised output dynamic range. Further, we describe the protocol, navigation environment and system used for visual navigation experiments to evaluate the use of depth on low resolution simulations of a bionic eye perceptual experience. Results for these experiments show that a depth-based representation is effective for navigation, and shows significant advantages over intensity-based approaches when overhanging obstacles are present. The results of the experiments were reported in [1], [2].
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84055223078&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/IEMBS.2011.6091977
DO - 10.1109/IEMBS.2011.6091977
M3 - Conference contribution
SN - 9781424441211
T3 - Proceedings of the Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS
SP - 8017
EP - 8020
BT - 33rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS 2011
Y2 - 30 August 2011 through 3 September 2011
ER -