Towards Immersive Virtual Reality Simulations of Bionic Vision
This addresses the problem of simulating bionic vision for researchers and developers, but it is incremental as it builds on existing models and VR technology.
The paper tackles the challenge of predicting visual perception in bionic vision devices by embedding biologically realistic models into immersive VR, enabling sighted subjects to act as virtual patients in real-world tasks.
Bionic vision is a rapidly advancing field aimed at developing visual neuroprostheses ('bionic eyes') to restore useful vision to people who are blind. However, a major outstanding challenge is predicting what people 'see' when they use their devices. The limited field of view of current devices necessitates head movements to scan the scene, which is difficult to simulate on a computer screen. In addition, many computational models of bionic vision lack biological realism. To address these challenges, we propose to embed biologically realistic models of simulated prosthetic vision (SPV) in immersive virtual reality (VR) so that sighted subjects can act as 'virtual patients' in real-world tasks.