Ford uses online software tool to simulate visual impairments
Ford is hoping to make it easier for people with poor eyesight to drive by using a visual impairment simulator to redesign its instruments.
The US car manufacturer is using an online software tool developed by a team from Cambridge University’s Engineering Design Centre in 2007 to better understand how people with sight conditions see the world.
The simulator reproduces the effects of conditions such as cataracts and colour blindness, and aims to show how even mild visual disabilities can prevent people from reading things.
It allows anyone to upload images of their own designs in order to test how they might appear to people with different sight impairments.
‘One of the unique features of our simulation is the ability to vary the degree of visual impairment from very mild to very severe,’ Dr Sam Waller, an inclusive design research associate at Cambridge University, told The Engineer.
Ford believes many older drivers struggle to read the instruments on the dashboard while driving unless they have bifocal or varifocal glasses.
Other eye conditions such as glaucoma, cataracts and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are also prevalent among those 50 and older.
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