A Virtual Reality Platform Simulating Visual Impairment for Testing of Electronic Travel Aids and Performing Orientation and Mobility Training

NCT05135195 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 21-00925
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 98
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

In this study, the study team utilize virtual reality (VR) to simulate visual impairments of different types and severity in healthy subjects. The platform implements three of the most widespread forms of visual impairment in the United States (US): age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy (DR), and glaucoma, each with three levels of severity, (mild, moderate, and severe). At present, glaucoma is further developed toward a multidimensional visual impairment simulation. The platform is utilized: i) to provide a safe, controllable, and repeatable set of environments for development and preliminary testing of electronic travel aids (ETAs) in a variety of conditions (i.e., using the ETA to navigate in the immersed environment); and ii) to equip blind and low vision (BVI) professionals, inclusive of orientation and mobility (O\&M) instructors, with a controlled, tunable training platform for skill/capacity building, assessment, and refinement of O\&M techniques, as well as visually impaired trainees with a safe and immersive environment to improve their O\&M skills and learn novel techniques. Two sets of hypothesis-driven experiments are proposed to assess the feasibility of the platform with respect to these two objectives.

Conditions

Visual Impairment; Age-Related Macular Degeneration; Diabetic Retinopathy; Glaucoma

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (9)

• Average time to complete the trial

  1 Day of Intervention

• Average number of obstacle collisions during the trial

  1 Day of Intervention

• Average travel time

  1 Day of Intervention

• Average distance traveled by the participant

  1 Day of Intervention

• Preferred walking speed

  1 Day of Intervention

• Orientation

  Orientation is measured through the time average of a polarization index, measured as the cosin of the angle between the direction of the instantaneous velocity vector and the straight line linking the instantaneous position of the participant and the following waypoint.

  1 Day of Intervention

• Number of instances in which the participant stop for more than 2 seconds

  1 Day of Intervention

• Total time spent during stops of more than 2 seconds

  1 Day of Intervention

• Average time it takes to understand how to interact with the system and run the simulation of the bus ride

  1 Day of Intervention

Study Arms (2)

First Set of Experiments

EXPERIMENTAL

The anticipated number of participants is 336. All participants have healthy vision.

Other: In-House Developed VR Platform - AMD, DR, Glaucoma

Second Set of Experiments

EXPERIMENTAL

The anticipated number of participants is 100. Of these, 80 participants have healthy vision, and 20 have glaucoma.

Other: In-House Developed VR Platform - Glaucoma

Interventions

In-House Developed VR Platform - AMD, DR, Glaucoma OTHER

Participants will conduct experiments using commercial VR headsets and controllers. Visual impairments will be systematically simulated in VR. There are three visual impairment simulations (AMD, DR, and glaucoma) at three levels of severity (mild, moderate, or severe). Symptoms' simulation tools include a gaussian blur shader, distortion shader, and a culling mask with a gray spot in the middle.

First Set of Experiments

In-House Developed VR Platform - Glaucoma OTHER

In the second set of experiments, a multidimensional visual impairment simulation of a single pathology (glaucoma) will be used at three levels of severity (mild, moderate, or severe). The post-processing package to simulate includes glare, difficulty in light, change adaptation, ambient occlusion, visual clutter, and overall blurred effect. The shader graph package will be used to create a distortion localized on assets surfaces only.

Second Set of Experiments

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 80 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Aged 18-80;
• People with glaucoma of all different levels and etiologies.
• Aged 18-80;
• Gender neutral: male or female.

You may not qualify if:

• Significant cognitive dysfunction (score \<24 on Folsteins' Mini Mental Status Examination)
• Previous neurological illness or psychiatric disorders, or suffer from a heart condition or other serious medical conditions
• Significant mobility restrictions; people using walkers and wheelchairs
• Pregnancy
• Elderly
• Seizures (people who previously have had a seizure, loss of awareness, or other symptom linked to an epileptic condition)
• Interference with medical devices (the headset and controller(s) may contain magnets or components that emit radio waves, which could affect the operation of nearby electronics, including cardiac pacemakers, hearing aids, and defibrillators)

Sponsors & Collaborators

• NYU Langone Health: lead

Study Sites (1)

NYU Langone Health

New York, New York, 10016, United States

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Vision Disorders; Macular Degeneration; Diabetic Retinopathy; Glaucoma

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Sensation Disorders; Neurologic Manifestations; Nervous System Diseases; Eye Diseases; Signs and Symptoms; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Retinal Degeneration; Retinal Diseases; Diabetic Angiopathies; Vascular Diseases; Cardiovascular Diseases; Diabetes Complications; Diabetes Mellitus; Endocrine System Diseases; Ocular Hypertension

Study Officials

• John-Ross Rizzo, MD

  NYU Langone Health

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NON RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: SCREENING
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: November 17, 2021
• First Posted: November 26, 2021
• Study Start: October 24, 2021
• Primary Completion: October 20, 2022
• Study Completion: October 20, 2022
• Last Updated: July 3, 2023

Record last verified: 2023-06

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL, SAP
• Time Frame: Beginning 9 months and ending 36 months following article publication or as required by a condition of awards and agreements supporting the research.
• Access Criteria: The investigator who proposed to use the data will have access to the data upon reasonable request. Requests should be directed to Johnross.rizzo@nyulangone.org. To gain access, data requestors will need to sign a data access agreement.

Locations

US (1)