Basic experimental study on visibility dependence on the signal sign pattern for low vision people

Abstract

Good visibility is essential to maintaining QoL (Quality of Life). Unfortunately, the world is rapidly aging, and aging degrades vision performance. In order to create future home/campus environments, we clarify the basic attributes of visibility that are needed to support low vision, or vision-impaired people. In an experiment, 30 subjects wear goggles simulating visual disturbances (constriction of the visual field and wall-eye) to determine the maximum distance that permitted successful recognition between the subject and a sign. The signs used here have 5 different patterns, from a simple humanoid to a humanoid plus blinking bricks. Subjects' comments on visibility are also gathered after the distance experiment. The result implies the size of sign needed for vision impaired people in home/campus environments.