Designing Visually Accessible Spaces

描述（由申请人提供）：对于300多万低视力的美国人来说，行动能力降低是视力丧失最严重的后果之一。我们将视觉可达性定义为使用视觉在环境中高效安全地旅行，感知环境中关键特征的空间布局，并跟踪一个人在环境中的位置。我们的长期目标是创造工具，为弱视人士的行动提供安全的环境设计，并提高老年人和其他可能需要在弱光和其他视觉挑战条件下工作的人的安全。我们计划开发一种基于计算机的设计工具，在这种工具中，环境（如酒店大堂、大教室或医院接待区）可以以足够的精度模拟，以预测在不同照明条件下关键地标或障碍物（如台阶或长凳）的可见度。我们的项目解决了国家眼科研究所的项目目标之一：“开发建筑结构、开放空间、公园和优化视觉障碍人士导航和其他日常任务执行所需设备的设计要求的知识库”。我们的研究计划有四个具体目标：1)开发预测在现有或规划的建筑空间中到达眼睛的物理光线水平的方法。2)获取视力正常但有视力限制的受试者和低视力人群的表现数据，以研究对基于视觉的移动至关重要的感知能力。3)开发模型来预测对基于视觉的移动性至关重要的任务的感知能力。4)演示一个概念验证软件工具，该工具可以在现有建筑设计系统的设计模型上运行，并能够突出显示视觉可访问性的潜在障碍。我们合作的主要研究人员来自三个机构：明尼苏达大学的戈登·莱格、丹尼尔·克斯滕；犹他大学William Thompson， Peter Shirley, Sarah Creem-Regehr；以及印第安纳大学的罗伯特·莎士比亚。这个跨学科的团队在视觉可达性的程序化研究、正常和低视力的实证研究（Legge、Kersten、Creem-Regehr和Thompson）、感知的计算建模（Legge、Kersten和Thompson）、光度正确的计算机图形学（Shirley）以及建筑设计和照明（Shakespeare）四个领域拥有专业知识。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Reduced mobility is one of the most debilitating consequences of vision loss for more than three million Americans with low vision. We define visual accessibility as the use of vision to travel efficiently and safely through an environment, to perceive the spatial layout of key features in the environment, and to keep track of one's location in the environment. Our long-term goal is to create tools to enable the design of safe environments for the mobility of low-vision individuals and to enhance safety for the elderly and others who may need to operate under low lighting and other visually challenging conditions. We plan to develop a computer-based design tool in which environments (such as a hotel lobby, large classroom, or hospital reception area), could be simulated with sufficient accuracy to predict the visibility of key landmarks or obstacles, such as steps or benches, under differing lighting conditions. Our project addresses one of the National Eye Institute's program objectives: "Develop a knowledge base of design requirements for architectural structures, open spaces, and parks and the devices necessary for optimizing the execution of navigation and other everyday tasks by people with visual impairments". Our research plan has four specific goals: 1) Develop methods for predicting the physical levels of light reaching the eye in existing or planned architectural spaces. 2) Acquire performance data for normally sighted subjects with visual restrictions and people with low vision to investigate perceptual capabilities critical to visually-based mobility. 3) Develop models that can predict perceptual competence on tasks critical to visually-based mobility. 4) Demonstrate a proof-of-concept software tool that operates on design models from existing architectural design systems and is able to highlight potential obstacles to visual accessibility. The lead investigators in our partnership come from three institutions: University of Minnesota Gordon Legge, Daniel Kersten; University of Utah William Thompson, Peter Shirley, Sarah Creem-Regehr; and Indiana University Robert Shakespeare. This interdisciplinary team has expertise in the four areas required for programmatic research on visual accessibility empirical studies of normal and low vision (Legge, Kersten, Creem-Regehr, and Thompson), computational modeling of perception (Legge, Kersten, and Thompson), photometrically correct computer graphics (Shirley), and architectural design and lighting (Shakespeare).