AFB, MU develop new technology for visually impaired

HUNTINGTON -- The contrast of digital display screens on cell phones, calculators and personal medical testing devices aren't very compatible with the visually impaired.

What might seem dark enough to see for a person with 20/20 vision most likely isn't dark enough for some 20 million Americans who have some form of visual impairment that doesn't include total blindness.

So the American Foundation for the Blind's Huntington Technology and Employment Center Optics Lab teamed up with Marshall University students and professors to develop a new device that accurately measures the contrast of digital displays.

The problem, said AFB TECH director Mark Uslan, is the lack of a standard contrast rating. Most manufacturers of digital displays, he said, are told to make them as cheap as possible. That often means a weaker contrast rating.

"We want to develop the standard for these displays, starting with contrast," Uslan said.

Contrast is the difference in visual properties that makes an object distinguishable from other objects and the background. In digital displays, it is the darkness of the numbers or letters versus the light, or often gray, background.

AFB is currently sponsoring a study at the VA Medical Center in Atlanta to find out what the optimal contrast percentage is. Whatever that number may be, officials expect it to be higher than the percentages their new device is finding.

The device was unveiled Wednesday at AFB TECH Optics Lab. After a brief explanation, officials demonstrated its effectiveness in reading contrast levels of random items with digital displays.

Their results, particularly with personal medical testing devices, secures the evidence they were seeking when they started the project about four years ago. A blood pressure monitor, for example, measured a contrast of 45 percent. The best they've found is about 60 percent, with some as low as 35 percent.

Uslan and National Technology Associate Lee Huffman said the medical devices are the most important part of the research because many people with visual impairments also have symptoms of high blood pressure or suffer from diabetes.

"You never really know how accurate you are," Huffman said. "How would you feel if you couldn't read (the display screens)? What if you could?"

Once AFB has the results from its clinical study, officials will add small screen display contrast measurements to its overall evaluation of devices. AFB TECH expects to take those results to manufacturers and work with them to improve their devices.

Uslan and Huffman said they expect the results to be so compelling that manufacturers will adopt a standard for contrast.

The device was developed by Marshall University professors Dr. Thomas Wilson (physicist and project developer) and Joe Fuller (computer science professor), along with students Russell Farmer, Jacob Bills and Steven Taylor.