Bioptic driving by visually impaired

描述(申请人提供)：在美国，80%的老年人生活在农村和郊区，开车是他们主要的交通工具。许多年长的司机由于年龄相关的视力丧失而被迫停止驾驶，这可能会极大地限制他们的独立性和机动性。在39个州，似乎有一个“简单”和合法的解决方案，可以延长他们的驾驶特权--使用安装在眼镜上的生物光学望远镜。在20多个州，他们只需通过望远镜的视力测试，就可以更新他们的视力 许可证。如果仅仅通过使用生物光学望远镜就能解决视力丧失的问题，将大大有助于保持老年人的独立性和生活质量。否则，它可能危及生物光学司机以及道路上其他人的安全。然而，生物光学驾驶还没有被很好地理解，它的安全性仍然是一个极具争议的问题。关于生物光学驾驶事故的有限研究一直不一致，而且无法从事故记录中确定事故是由于使用生物光学系统还是不使用生物光学系统造成的。生物光学望远镜实际上是如何用于驾驶的，它们应该如何使用，以及它们的使用是否会导致更好的驾驶性能或更差的驾驶性能，都没有基于科学数据得到很好的确定。现有的知识和培训指南是基于生物光学司机的自我报告和专业人员的意见。需要解决的两个关键方面是，在使用双眼光学系统时缺乏关于双眼视觉感知的知识，以及生物医学对驾驶安全的影响。一个由驾驶研究人员、低视力科学家、驾驶专业人员、康复专家和工程师组成的团队提出了两项研究，以解决生物光学驾驶辩论的核心问题。一个ARM是基于他们自然的日常驾驶活动来研究生物光学司机的行为和驾驶表现，使用 长期的车内录音系统，计算机化的筛选技术，以及我们开发的用户友好的离线审查界面。具有驾驶经验的初学者将在培训前后接受测试。在自然驾驶和调查的基础上，将其与正常视力对照组进行比较。还将分析生物光学使用与驱动性能之间的关系。另一个ARM是专门调查设备暗点对实验室环境和驾驶模拟器中危险检测的影响。在这些精确控制的实验中，将评估对由于使用光学显微镜而出现在设备暗点中的实际危险的检测。我们的长期目标是回答这样一个问题：“使用光导纤维开车安全吗？”期望从这些研究中获得的知识将有助于理解生物光学驱动的潜在因素，制定合适的生物光学望远镜，设计更好的生物光学系统，并制定培训计划。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In the US, 80% of the older people living in rural and suburban areas, and driving is their principle means of transportation. Many older drivers are forced to cease driving due to age-related vision loss, which may greatly restrict their independence and mobility. There seems to be an "easy" and legal solution in 39 states for them to prolong their driving privilege - using the spectacle-mounted bioptic telescopes. In more than 20 states, they simply need to pass the vision test with the telescope in order to renew their licenses. If the problem of vision loss could be solved simply by using bioptic telescopes, it would greatly help to maintain the independence and the quality of life in older age. Otherwise, it could jeopardize the safety of bioptic drivers as well as other people on the road. Bioptic driving, however, is not well understood, and its safety is still a highly controversial issue. Limited studies on bioptic driving accidents have been inconsistent, and it cannot be determined from accident records whether the accidents were due to using the bioptic or not using the bioptic. How bioptic telescopes are actually used in driving, how they should be used, and whether their use results in better or worse driving performance have not been well established based on scientific data. Existing knowledge and training guidelines are based on self-reports from the bioptic drivers and opinions from professionals. Two critical aspects that need to be addressed are the lack of knowledge about bi-ocular visual perception when the bioptic is used and the impact of bioptics on driving safety. Two arms of research are proposed by a team of driving researchers, low vision scientists, driving professionals, rehabilitation specialists, and engineers to address the centerpieces in the bioptic driving debate. One arm is to study bioptic drivers' behaviors and driving performance based on their natural daily driving activities, using a long-term in-car recording system, computerized screening techniques, and user friendly off-line reviewing interfaces that we have developed. Novice bioptic users with prior driving experience will be tested before and after bioptic training. Bioptic drivers will be compared with normally sighted control group based on natural driving and survey. The relationship between bioptic use and driving performance will also be analyzed. Another arm is to specifically investigate the impact of device scotoma on hazard detection in laboratory settings and a driving simulator. In those precisely controlled experiments, detection of realistic hazard appearing in the device scotoma due to bioptic use will be evaluated. The long term objective is to answer the question "Is it safe to drive with bioptic?". It is expected that the knowledge gained from the proposed studies may help to understand underlying factors of bioptic driving, prescribe appropriate bioptic telescopes, design better bioptic system, and develop training programs.