Designing Visually Accessible Spaces

描述(由申请人提供)：行动不便是300多万视力低下的美国人最令人衰弱的后果之一。我们将视觉可达性定义为使用视觉在环境中高效和安全地旅行，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，为低视力人士的行动设计安全的环境，并加强老年人和其他可能需要在低光照和其他视觉挑战条件下操作的人的安全。我们计划开发一种基于计算机的设计工具，在其中可以足够准确地模拟环境(如酒店大堂、大教室或医院接待区)，以预测关键地标或障碍物在不同照明条件下的可见度，如台阶或长凳。我们的项目针对的是国家眼科研究所的项目目标之一：“开发建筑结构、开放空间和公园的设计要求的知识库，以及优化视觉障碍人士执行导航和其他日常任务所需的设备”。我们的研究计划有四个具体目标：1)开发预测现有或计划中的建筑空间中到达眼睛的光线的物理水平的方法。2)获取视力正常、视力受限的受试者和低视力者的表现数据，以研究对基于视觉的移动性至关重要的感知能力。3)开发可以预测对基于视觉的移动性至关重要的任务的知觉能力的模型。4)演示概念验证软件工具，该工具在现有建筑设计系统的设计模型上运行，并能够突出视觉可访问性的潜在障碍。我们合作的首席调查人员来自三个机构：明尼苏达大学戈登·莱格，丹尼尔·克斯滕；犹他大学威廉·汤普森，彼得·雪莉，莎拉·克里姆-雷格尔；以及印第安纳大学罗伯特·莎士比亚。这个跨学科团队在以下四个领域拥有专业知识：视觉可及性项目研究、正常和低视力的经验研究(Legge、Kersten、Creem-Regehr和Thompson)、感知的计算建模(Legge、Kersten和Thompson)、光度校正计算机图形学(雪莉)以及建筑设计和照明(莎士比亚)。

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).