Communications of the ACM
Ford ses Online Software Tool to Simulate Visual Impairments
The Visual Impairment Simulator tool developed by Cambridge University's Engineering Design Center can reproduce the effects of conditions such as cataracts and color blindness.
Credit: CrazyEngineers
Ford is working with Cambridge University's Engineering Design Center to simulate visual impairments to improve the driving experience in its automobiles.
Ford believes many older drivers may need bifocal or varifocal glasses to read the instruments on the dashboard. As a result, Ford is using a visual impairment simulator to study how visual disabilities prevent people from reading the dashboard, and the results will be used to optimize the design of instruments so they can be safely and comfortably read by as many drivers as possible.
Cambridge's Engineering Design Center developed the online software tool, which can reproduce the effects of conditions such as cataracts and color blindness. Ford can upload images to test how they might appear to people with various sight impairments. "One of the unique features of our simulation is the ability to vary the degree of visual impairment from very mild to very severe," says Cambridge's Sam Waller.
Ford previously has used goggles that simulate cataracts to study the difficulties of older drivers. "The goggles are a very useful tool but this software is a big leap forward because it lets us simulate so many different impairments," says Ford's Angelika Engel.
From The Engineer
View Full Article
Abstracts Copyright © 2012 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
No entries found