Though Virtual reality is one of the coolest technology available in the market, it is not so cool for the ones with vision problems. Regarding the concern, Microsoft researchers are working on the issue, and they have announced a tool kit that will help players with low vision. As we all know that vision problems vary from individual to individual, therefore, Microsoft’s research team has designed an adjustable tool kit with which users can customize their experience as per the requirements.
There have been reports that the tool kit that researchers had designed consists of 14 tools that includes brightness and contrast adjusting controls, a bifocal lens, a magnifier edge enhancement, and depth measurements devices too. Besides adjusting and customizing the visuals, the players will also have an option to enhance selected objects in a particular scene.
Microsoft has named the toolkit as SeeingVR, and recently the tech giant tested the toolkit on 11 people that had vision problems. Following the tests, the researchers noted that the players with vision problems were able to complete the in-game tasks such as shooting and killing enemies quickly with the tool as compared to the default mode. Sources have reported that the SeeingVR at present is available only for Unity VR developers.
There have been reports that Microsoft intern and Cornell Tech graduate student Yuhang Zhao along with his team will represent the research results in the paper at this year’s CHI conference in Glasgow. The paper is titled “SeeingVR: A Set of Tools to Make Virtual Reality More Accessible to People with Low Vision.” The paper will hold results of the research that were performed by the Microsoft researchers including Ed Cutrell, Christian Holz, Eyal Ofek, Andrew Wilson and Meredith Ringel Morris.
