title: Wideband enhancement of television images for people with visual impairments.
abstract: Wideband enhancement was implemented by detecting visually relevant edge and bar features in an image to produce a bipolar contour map. The addition of these contours to the original image resulted in increased local contrast of these features and an increase in the spatial bandwidth of the image. Testing with static television images revealed that visually impaired patients (n = 35) could distinguish the enhanced images and preferred them over the original images (and degraded images). Most patients preferred a moderate level of wideband enhancement, since they preferred natural-looking images and rejected visible artifacts of the enhancement. Comparison of the enhanced images with the originals revealed that the improvement in the perceived image quality was significant for only 22% of the patients. Possible reasons for the limited increase in perceived image quality are discussed, and improvements are suggested.
authors.affiliation: The Schepens Eye Research Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114-2500, USA. eli@vision.eri.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Eli
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Peli
authors.forename: Jeonghoon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Yitzhak
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yitzhaky
authors.forename: Robert B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Goldstein
authors.forename: Russell L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Woods
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000465:Algorithms; D003626:Data Display; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013690:Television; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000534:rehabilitation*