The Visually Impaired Can Now Drive!

You will have to fight the hard way to get a driving license if you have visual disabilities. Most probably the law will never permit it. But there are also cases when a driver may face age related visual problems commonly called as Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) where the visual abilities of a person may get affected because of ageing. This and more troubles like Cataract, Glaucoma patients will now be able to drive their own cars with ease thanks to the technological initiative by Cambridge University and Ford Motor Co.

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Image Credit: vrrentals.com

The team of scientists at Cambridge University's Engineering Design Centre are working along with Ford to develop vehicles for those having visual disabilities. The designing task is aided by Vision Impairment Simulator which helps the designers to get a feel of how a person with eye disorders might see objects while driving. For achieving this, a designer has to load an image in the simulator and select a desired ‘impairment’. With this, the simulator simulates the image and the engineers can then find solutions to tackle these problems.

#-Link-Snipped-# also enables the designers to change the degree of impairment when an image of an object is loaded. Moreover they are able to compare how a person suffering from Glaucoma might see an object in the way someone with cataract is able to see, with all permutations and combinations possible! It is Ford's reputation of doing research in a way which benefits the customers and passengers. The company recently came up with #-Link-Snipped-# for crash testing. This has helped the engineers understand the solutions to be employed when an underage is involved in a car accident.

Vehicles by ford designed for visually impaired were earlier based on the 3D suit and Goggles that led the technicians develop ways to make the ageing population comfortable in cars. The Visual Impairment simulator that actually simulates the images for the betterment of understanding problems involved in driving when an eye patient is driving. We hope to see cars developed using this simulator soon in future.

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