On-Screen Deconvolution to Facilitate Computer Access for Users with Visual Impairments Involving Higher-Order Wavefront Aberrations

通过图形用户界面与计算机的成功交互隐含地要求对计算机屏幕上显示的图像的不失真的感知。 这对于具有严重和不规则视觉限制的个体是一个问题，这些视觉限制不能通过传统机制（例如眼镜或隐形眼镜）来矫正。 在本项目中，PI将探索让计算机生成修改后的显示以纠正圆锥角膜、透明边缘变性、Terrien边缘变性和相关屈光障碍等条件的可能性，这些条件会以不对称和不规则的方式扭曲眼睛感知的图像。 由这些条件引入的失真的不规则性通过需要包括高阶（即，2)眼睛波前像差（WA）函数的泽尼克多项式近似中的项，其表示通过眼睛的光学部件（角膜、透镜）的图像失真。 图像处理和验光的最新进展，以及不断增加的实时应用程序的计算能力的承诺，使得有可能设想一种计算机系统，给定其用户的视觉能力的适当表征，将生成以互补方式匹配他/她的视力限制的显示，从而克服用户的视力问题。 此外，能够准确表征人的WA的仪器现在可在商业上获得。 PI和他的团队将使用点扩散函数（PSF），从一个人的WA中获得，以预补偿（通过反卷积）显示在计算机屏幕上的图像，使他们被认为是不失真的个人的PSF被考虑。更广泛的影响：该项目将导致新的辅助技术的设计，这反过来可能会导致工具，造福于广大人民。 由于将有大量学生参加该项目，而且PI的机构是全国少数几个拥有博士学位综合课程的少数民族机构之一，因此预计也将对教育产生重大影响。 去卷积工作在技术和社会层面都有可能产生广泛的影响，因为它构成了一种通过数字而不是光学手段补偿图像以进行视觉矫正的新方法，并且考虑到估计传统解决方案中忽略的高阶视觉障碍可能影响多达7，000，000名患有过度不规则屈光不正的美国人。

Successful interaction with a computer through a graphical user interface implicitly requires the undistorted perception of the images displayed on the computer screen. This is a problem for individuals with severe and irregular visual limitations that cannot be corrected through traditional mechanisms such as eyeglasses or contact lenses. In this project the PI will explore the possibility of having the computer generate modified displays to correct conditions such as keratoconus, pellucid marginal degeneration, Terrien's marginal degeneration, and related refraction disorders that distort the images perceived by the eye in asymmetrical and irregular ways. The irregularity of the distortion introduced by these conditions is captured by the need to include higher-order (i.e., 2) terms in the Zernike polynomial approximation of the eye's wavefront aberration (WA) function, which represents the distortion of images through the optical components of the eye (cornea, lens). Recent advances in image processing and optometry, as well as the continued promise of increasing computing power for real-time applications, make it possible to envision a computer system that, given the proper characterization of the visual capabilities of its user, will generate a display that matches his/her vision limitations in a complementary way, thus overcoming the user's vision problem. Furthermore, instruments capable of accurately characterizing a person's WA are now commercially available. The PI and his team will use the point-spread function (PSF), obtained from a person's WA, to pre-compensate (by deconvolution) the images shown on the computer screen, so that they are perceived undistorted by the individual whose PSF is considered.Broader Impacts: This project will lead to the design of novel assistive technologies, which in turn may well lead to tools that benefit the population at large. A substantial impact on education is also to be expected, due to the large number of students who will participate in the project and in light of the fact that the PI's institution is one of the few minority institutions in the nation with comprehensive programs through the PhD level. The deconvolution work has the potential for broad impact in both technical and societal dimensions, in that it constitutes a novel approach to compensation of images for visual correction purposes via digital rather than optical means, and in consideration of estimates that higher-order visual impairment neglected in traditional solutions may affect as many as 7,000,000 Americans who have excessively irregular refractive errors.