Efficacy of Enhancing Low Vision Mobility thru Visual Training in Virtual World

通过虚拟世界视觉训练增强低视力活动能力的功效

• 批准号: 7989308
• 负责人: LEI LIU
• 金额: $ 23.78万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-09-01 至 2012-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7989308
• 关键词: Address; Auditory; Blindness; Client; Complex; Computers; Data; Development; Devices; Distant; Educational Curriculum; Environment; Evaluation; Event; Eye; Goals; Lead; Learning; Life; Motor; Output; Participant; Patients; Performance; Persons; Preparation; Protocols documentation; Randomized; Recruitment Activity; Rehabilitation therapy; Safety; Schedule; Sensory; Signal Transduction; Simulate; Staging; Supervision; System; Techniques; Technology; Testing; Training; Travel; Universities; Vision; Vision research; Visual; Visual impairment; Walking; base; cost; cost efficient; design; evidence base; experience; improved; instructor; interest; meetings; primary outcome; public health relevance; satisfaction; skill acquisition; skills; virtual; virtual reality; vision aid; visual information; visual search

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): NEI's National Plan for Eye and Vision Research has identified Low Vision and Blindness Rehabilitation as one of the most pressing needs and opportunities in vision research. Since most low vision (LV) patients nowadays have useable vision, an important aspect of LV rehabilitation is to maximize the use of the patient's remaining vision. Visual skills are especially important in tasks such as traveling independently through busy streets, in which distant, rapidly changing events have direct impact on the patient's task efficiency and safety. The patient has to learn new information acquisition skills to compensate for their impaired vision. Current LV training for such skills is done on real streets in a one-on-one, trainer/trainee sessions. This way of training, however, usually does not expose clients to all the circumstances that they need to deal with, usually does not provide graded levels of task difficulty and repeatable conditions that facilitate learning, and cannot meet the needs of the majority of LV patients because of the shortage and the high cost of LV trainers and. The advances of virtual reality (VR) technology have made it possible and affordable to build VR systems that can realistically simulate complex and dynamic multi-sensory environments to facilitate LV rehabilitation. However, the most important first step in applying VR technologies to LV rehabilitation is to determine whether the visual experiences of a LV person can be transferred to the real world. Only when a positive transfer of visual skills is confirmed, can subsequent development of comprehensive VR training systems for all aspects of LV rehabilitation become worthwhile. The purpose of the proposed study is to accomplish this first step. A set of visual skills for a most visually challenging task, crossing a signal-controlled street, are selected from standard orientation and mobility curriculum to study virtual experience transfer. Existing technology will be used to build a desktop computer based VR simulator that can generate virtual street intersection scenarios that contain visual and auditory information required for practicing the skills to be studied. Forty-eight LV persons will be recruited from a university LV rehabilitation facility. They will be randomly assigned to practicing the selected visual skills at real, virtual or no street intersections. Their skill levels will be evaluated at real intersections before, immediately after and one month after their scheduled trainings. The primary outcome of interest is the mean change of visual skills between pre- and post-training evaluations in the three groups. Data of visual functions, visual search performance, the sense of presence in VR, subjective rating of task difficulties, and the usefulness and satisfaction of the training sessions will also be collected and analyzed. The long-term goal is to develop interactive VR training systems that have multiple sensory and motor input and output modules and that incorporate the collective experiences of the LV rehabilitation profession. Adding such systems to LV curriculum can greatly improved the affordability, accessibility, efficiency and the scope of LV rehabilitation. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Low vision patients have difficulty acquiring sufficient visual information in a timely manner for the purpose of performing challenging daily tasks, such as traveling independently and safely through busy streets. The advance of virtual reality techniques has provided a potential platform for training low vision patients to use their remaining vision more efficiently, but the key issue is always whether the patient's visual experiences in a virtual world can be transferred to the real world. The proposed study is designed to provide definite answer to this question.

描述（由申请人提供）：NEI的眼睛和视力研究国家计划已确定低视力和失明康复作为视力研究中最紧迫的需求和机会之一。由于目前大多数低视力（LV）患者具有可用视力，LV康复的一个重要方面是最大限度地利用患者的剩余视力。视觉技能在诸如在忙碌街道上独立行进的任务中尤其重要，在这些任务中，遥远的、快速变化的事件对患者的任务效率和安全性有直接影响。患者必须学习新的信息获取技能，以弥补其受损的视力。目前，LV对这些技能的培训是在真实的街道上以一对一的培训师/学员课程进行的。然而，这种训练方式通常不会将客户暴露在他们需要处理的所有情况下，通常不会提供促进学习的任务难度和可重复条件的分级水平，并且由于LV培训师的短缺和高成本而不能满足大多数LV患者的需求。虚拟现实（VR）技术的进步使得构建VR系统成为可能，并且可以负担得起，这些系统可以逼真地模拟复杂和动态的多感官环境，以促进LV康复。然而，将VR技术应用于LV康复的最重要的第一步是确定LV患者的视觉体验是否可以转移到真实的世界。只有确认视觉技能的正迁移，才有必要为LV康复的各个方面开发全面的VR训练系统。拟议研究的目的是完成这第一步。一组视觉技能的视觉上最具挑战性的任务，穿越信号控制的街道，从标准的方向和流动性课程，研究虚拟体验转移。现有技术将用于构建基于桌面计算机的VR模拟器，该模拟器可以生成虚拟街道交叉口场景，其中包含练习所需技能的视觉和听觉信息。将从大学LV康复机构招募48名LV患者。他们将被随机分配到练习所选的视觉技能在真实的，虚拟或没有街道交叉口。他们的技能水平将在计划培训之前、之后和一个月后的真实的交叉点进行评估。感兴趣的主要结果是三组训练前和训练后评估之间视觉技能的平均变化。此外，还将收集和分析视觉功能、视觉搜索性能、VR中的存在感、任务难度的主观评分以及培训课程的有用性和满意度等数据。长期目标是开发具有多个感觉和运动输入和输出模块的交互式VR训练系统，并结合LV康复专业的集体经验。将此类系统添加到LV课程中可以大大提高LV康复的可负担性、可及性、效率和范围。 公共卫生相关性：低视力患者难以及时地获取足够的视觉信息以执行具有挑战性的日常任务，例如独立且安全地穿过忙碌的街道。虚拟现实技术的发展为训练低视力患者更有效地利用剩余视力提供了一个潜在的平台，但关键问题始终是患者在虚拟世界中的视觉体验能否转移到真实的世界。本研究旨在为这一问题提供明确的答案。