A total of 16 heavy-projects, the original
51, had qualified for Stage 2 of the announcement. The assessment team stayed
for six projects. The requested amount for the six projects was in excess of 33
million. At the final assessment was modified to 26.5 million. Among six the
forth project is:

Visualization of the human eye
limits

Johan Sjostrand, Professor

Department of Ophthalmology

University of Gothenburg

4 150 000 SEK

In this project we will develop new
tools Thursday visualize how limitations in human vision reduces our ability to
make a correct interpretation of a visual scene. An enormous amount of
information and data reaches the brain through our vision and any degradation of
the first steps in vision, i.e. the quality of the retinal image, will influence
all further data processing. The proposed tools will Calculate which data that
is lost because of limitations in the eyes and visualize the visibility
thresholds. This gives new knowledge about how an environment can be improved
Thursday better suit people with impaired vision by emphasizing contrasts or
visibility to reach over the threshold for detection. In more detail we will
develop new mathematical models for the imperfections in the eye that can be
used for image processing of high dynamic range images. We will develop a
stand-alone software package for analysis of such images, as well as analysis of
video sequences.

Knowledge about visual limitations in
human eyes will result in improved indoor-and outdoor contrast Coloring and
lighting design, like better planning of senior people homes and public spaces
with improved visibility and minimal risk of GLARE. It seems that the new trend
is using small high Luminance light sources is not based on knowledge of the
visual limitation of the human eye. Another problem is that young people with
perfect eyesight do not always realize the visual degradation with age and
visual impairment, eg Cataract. A third problem is that the slow process of
visual degradation is seldom obvious to an aging person, until it is too late.
The project involves partners from academic medicine, architecture and computer
science faculties and partners from both industry and public sectors that cover
industry branches from road and traffic administration Thursday real estate
business and lighting planning.