Digital imaging can be used to change image characteristics such as magnification, luminance, contrast and edge definition. Early attempts to use such enhancement to improve the television viewing and face recognition of visually impaired people have generally been of limited success and have examined only static image enhancement. For this research scholarship I investigated the benefits of software written by Dr James Wolffsohn to allow real-time enhancement of television pictures. The research took place in the Optometry department of Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham. 102 visually impaired patients attending low vision clinics optimised dynamic television images with respect to edge detection filter (Prewitt, Sobel or the two combined), colour (red, green, blue or white) and intensity (1 to 15 times) of the overlaid edges. They then viewed real-time footage of news, an advert and end-of program credits and for each clip rated the original image, the black and white detected edges and the optimised enhanced image with the detected edges overlaid. Amongst other findings, the main outcome was that the visually impaired generally benefit from enhancement of real-time television images.
The most educational and rewarding aspect of this research was the collection of data from hospital low vision clinic patients. I learnt a great deal about the practical, everyday benefits that result from academic research, as well as valuable patient interaction skills. I also became aware of aspects required to make research reliable, such as standardisation of techniques.
The project led to the opportunity to present a research poster at the Hospital Optometrists’ Annual Conference, and the forthcoming Nottingham Eye Symposium. This was a great privilege and allowed me to see how research progresses from the planning stages to a published document that displays findings to others.
The entire research scholarship experience has proven to be a truly valuable and enjoyable part of my optometry studies.
Research by: Ditipriya Mukhopadhyay, Aston University