Vision Multiplexing: an Engineering Approach to Vision Rehabilitation Device Development

Multiplexing is the transmission of two or more messages simultaneously over the same communication channel in a way that enables them to be separated and used at the receiving end. The normal visual system provides us with a very wide field of view at an apparent high resolution. The wide field of view is continuously monitored at a low resolution, providing information for navigation and detection of objects of interest. These objects of interest are sampled over time using the high‐resolution fovea. Most disabling visual conditions impact only one of the components, the peripheral low‐resolution wide field or the central high‐resolution fovea. The loss of one of these components prevents the interplay of central and peripheral vision needed for normal function and causes disability. Traditionally low‐vision aids replace or supplement the missing function, but usually at a cost of a significant loss in the surviving function. For example, magnifying devices increase resolution but reduce the field of view, whereas minifying devices increase the field of view but reduce resolution. A proposal to resolve many of the problems of current visual aids by exploring a general engineering approach—vision multiplexing—that takes advantage of the dynamic nature of human vision is presented. Vision multiplexing seeks to provide both the wide field of view and the high‐resolution information in ways that could be accessed and interpreted by the visual system. This paper describes the use of optical methods and computer technologies in the development of a number of new visual aids, all of which apply vision multiplexing to restore the interplay of central and peripheral vision using eye movements in a natural way.