Sarit F.A Szpiro¹, Lior Maman²; ¹Department of Special Education, University of Haifa, ²Department of Information Systems, University of Haifa

Goal People with low vision struggle with various daily tasks, including walking between hazards. Augmented reality (AR) has been demonstrated to improve the accessibility of various items in daily tasks by modifying, magnifying, and changing the visibility of items. Here, we examined the utility of modifying the visibility of hazards using AR in a walking task. Methods Two groups participated in the study - typically sighted and low vision participants. Both groups had to walk an obstacle course with various items along the route in two conditions: (1) No AR augmentation; (2) With AR augmentation. In both condition, physical items were present on the route, but in the AR condition each item’s outline was highlighted to attract attention and increase its visibility. Results We found a difference between groups. For the low vision group, we found that walking time was shorter and less collisions in the AR condition. In contrast, in the typically sighted group time and collisions did not significantly change. These results illustrate the potential of AR glasses as a vision enhancement aid in navigation and highlight areas for future work in computer vision, design, and vision science.

Acknowledgements: Research grant ISF 1198/22 to SFAS