Abstract
Purpose :
Globally 246 million people have low vision and have difficulty performing everyday tasks. The objective of this study was to compare visual function and functional vision in individuals with low vision using three different models of augmented reality (AR) devices
Methods :
Three models of AR devices were used in this study - Ziru, IrisVision and NuEyes Pro 3. 27 individuals with low vision (<20/60 (0.5 logMAR)) were recruited. The distance visual acuity (VA) was measured in four illumination settings: High luminance high contrast (HLHC), High luminance low contrast (HLLC), Low luminance high contrast (LLHC) and Low luminance low contrast (LLLC). The other visual function tests were near VA using SK Read card, distance and near contrast sensitivity (CS) using Pelli-Robson charts. The change in visual functions without and with AR devices was analyzed using the Wilcoxon sign rank test and Friedmann test
Results :
Out of 27 participants, 17 were female. The mean age was 66.7±18.2, ranging from 25 to 92 years of age. 13 people had central field loss, 9 had peripheral field loss, 2 had central and peripheral field loss and 3 had generalized vision loss. The mean baseline VA was 0.79 logMAR in HLHC, 0.92 logMAR in HLLC, 0.92 logMAR in LLHC and 1.11 logMAR in LLLC. The baseline near VA was 2.09M, distance CS was 1.08 logCS, and near CS was 1.12 logCS. Distance and near vision showed significant difference with both Ziru and IrisVision under all testing conditions (p<0.01), but not with NuEyes in HLHC (p=0.12), and HLLC (p=0.31) conditions. There was no significant change in contrast sensitivity measures using Ziru and IrisVision for both distance and near (p>0.05) but both measures reduced significantly with NuEyes (p<0.01). See Table 1 for comparison of all visual function measures without and with AR devices
Conclusions :
Majority of the visual functions had improvement with all three devices, yet the distance vision had significant improvement in all the illumination settings with Ziru and IrisVision, whereas the improvement was limited to LLHC and LLLC setting with NuEyes. The near vision had maximum improvement with Iris vision, distance and near contrast sensitivity was better with Ziru. While there are few changes in visual functions with all three models of AR devices, there was a huge difference in terms of cost
This abstract was presented at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, WA, May 5-9, 2024.