Intel sponsors Stanford to develop VR heads for near-and-myopia patients

▼ Intel sponsors Stanford to develop VR heads for patients with nearsightedness from Baidu VR Some new technologies are related to our personal characteristics. For example, the voice recognition function on smartphones can identify the way we speak. However, today's virtual reality heads do not have such features. Virtual reality heads cannot explain the difference in vision between people, and this may affect the viewing experience and even cause headaches or nausea. Researchers at Stanford University are trying to personalize virtual reality heads and consider personal vision. Researchers at Stanford University's Computational Imaging Laboratory are collaborating with Dartmouth College scientists to develop VR heads that can adaptively adjust image display based on visual acuity, age, and other factors. They have published their research in The Journal of the National Academy of Sciences. Gordon Wetzstein, senior author of the paper, and assistant professor of electrical engineering, said: "To get the best VR experience, everyone needs a different optical model." Although the project is still in the prototyping stage, studies have shown that VR headsets may one day provide user-desired personalization settings. Wetzstein said: "We hope our findings will guide these developments in the VR industry." Focus problem The problem that researchers need to solve is: The VR head-up display cannot allow our eyes to focus naturally. In real life, once our eyes are focused on one point, all other backgrounds will be blurred. However, VR makes the focusing of the eye more difficult because the display is fixed at a certain point with respect to our eyes. This eye strain can cause user discomfort or headaches. The team member, Nitish Padmanaban, a Ph.D. student in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, pointed out: "After 30-40 minutes, your eyes will begin to hurt. You may also have a headache. You may not know the specific reason, but you can feel certain Some uncomfortable areas. We think that with the longer VR content, it will have a negative impact on people." Importantly, the impact of visual conflict on young people and the elderly is not the same. For example, people over the age of 45 usually have presbyopia (things that are difficult for the eye to focus on at a short distance). Young people usually do not appear presbyopia, but they may have myopia problems and need to wear glasses. No matter what kind of situation, the current VR headshot does not take these visual difficulties into consideration. Emily Cooper, an assistant professor of research at the Department of Psychology and Cerebral Sciences at Dartmouth College, said: “One of the insights in our paper is to use age as a consideration rather than just focusing on young users. Our research also shows that it is suitable for older users. The best solution may not be suitable for young users." 2. Adaptive focusing Researchers are testing hardware and software fixes and hope to change the focal plane of VR displays. They call this technique adaptive focus display. They tested two different hardware options. An adjustable liquid lens is used to change the screen display by turning the adjuster and squeezing the liquid lens inside the head; another solution consists of moving the display back and forth mechanically, just like adjusting a pair of binoculars. The system also integrates eye tracking technology to determine where the user is looking. Combined with eye tracking technology, the software can determine what the user is trying to see and then control the hardware to provide the most comfortable visual display. The software can explain whether you are a nearsighted user or a farsighted user, but it is not yet possible to correct the vision problem of “astigmatism”. With these displays, VR users do not need to wear glasses or contact lenses to get a good visual experience. The research team member, Robert Konrad, one of the candidates for electrical engineering at Stanford University, said: “This is very important because the three groups of nearsightedness, farsightedness, or farsightedness make up more than 50% of the U.S. population. The point is that we can basically try to match each One person, bring them the best experience.” The researchers tested the prototypes of these VR displays at the SIGGRAPH conference last year. Tal Stramer, a graduate student in computer science at Stanford University, participated in this phase. The team also tested adaptive focus display technology among 17- to 64-year-old volunteers and found that the technology can provide an optimized viewing experience for a wide range of visual features. According to Xiaobian, organizations such as the National Science Foundation, Intel, and Samsung provided support and financial assistance for the study. ?

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