Conventional computer display products for the visually impaired are limited by the amount of enlarged text that can be displayed at any one time, and by unwieldy methods for navigating about the scene. The proposed effort will implement and evaluate a head-mounted display interface, which will provide the ability to position a cursor anywhere on an enlarged virtual page by turning to view that location in space. This virtual computer monitor offers potentially large improvements in computer access and productivity to millions of visually impaired Americans. Under the proposed effort, General Reality will construct a prototype of the virtual monitor, and will measure its ability to improve computer access rates at the Western Blind Rehabilitation Center of the Veterans Administration Hospital in Palo Alto, CA. In parallel, subcontractor SRI International will develop safety guidelines for extended use based on before/after tests of visual performance. In the anticipated Phase II effort, results of the initial testing will be incorporated in an improved version of the interface, which will be extensively evaluated and beta tested. Assuming favorable results, General Reality intends to commercialize the virtual monitor at a price comparable to or below conventional solutions.
The immediate commercial application is development of a portable, low-cost display that will improve computer access options for nearly 3 million visually impaired Americans. The research results will also be applied in other head-mounted display applications spanning many industries.
