Anastasios Angelopolous (BS '19), et al, recently published a paper titled, "Enhanced Depth Navigation Through Augmented Reality Depth Mapping in Patients with Low Vision." It was published in Nature Research journal Scientific Reports August 2, 2019. The paper describes the use of augmented reality (AR) to assist those diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa (RP).

After his freshman year, Anastasios started working with USC Professor Mark Humayun, initially focusing on artificial retinal technology. However, in the following two and a half years, their research expanded to explore the possibility of using augmented reality as a way to help people with low vision navigate safely through complex environments.

They combined special glasses and software, which scans an environment, then projects onto the wearer's retina the corresponding obstacles. The team found that the use of their unique AR visual aid reduced collisions by 50% in mobility testing, and by 70% in grasp testing. This striking result is the first to prove clinically that augmented reality can help people with low vision live more independent lives.

Anastasios and team hope that work like this can help people with low vision increase their independence through mobility. They plan to continue their research to include other modalities, such as audio and haptics.

Please join us in congratulating Anastasios and team on the publication of their research work!
This year Anastasios received the Terman Scholastic Achievement Award and completed his BS in Electrical Engineering in an accelerated timeframe.

Additional Authors:
Dr. & Prof. Hossein Ameri, USC Ophthalmology (bio link)
Dr. & Prof. Mark Humayun, USC Institute for Biomedical Therapeutics (IBT) (bio link)
Dr. & Prof. Debbie Mitra, USC Institute for Biomedical Therapeutics (IBT) (bio link)

Paper Abstract:
Patients diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) show, in the advanced stage of the disease, severely restricted peripheral vision causing poor mobility and decline in quality of life. This vision loss causes difficulty identifying obstacles and their relative distances. Thus, RP patients use mobility aids such as canes to navigate, especially in dark environments. A number of high-tech visual aids using virtual reality (VR) and sensory substitution have been developed to support or supplant traditional visual aids. These have not achieved widespread use because they are difficult to use or block off residual vision. This paper presents a unique depth to high-contrast pseudocolor mapping overlay developed and tested on a Microsoft Hololens 1 as a low vision aid for RP patients. A single-masked and randomized trial of the AR pseudocolor low vision aid to evaluate real world mobility and near obstacle avoidance was conducted consisting of 10 RP subjects. An FDA-validated functional obstacle course and a custom-made grasping setup were used. The use of the AR visual aid reduced collisions by 50% in mobility testing (p = 0.02), and by 70% in grasp testing (p = 0.03). This paper introduces a new technique, the pseudocolor wireframe, and reports the first significant statistics showing improvements for the population of RP patients with mobility and grasp.