From augmented reality to virtual reality—for optimal patient experience and practical usability
Starting point 2023:
The virtual test viewing with our 2021 app impressed both doctors and patients. However, we received feedback that doctors don't have the time or space in their practice to set up a separate room with objects for close, medium and distant viewing. Augmented reality is therefore not the right technology for this purpose.
That's why we're switching technologies for our second app: If the room situation at the physician is not feasible, we simply build the perfect room ourselves—in virtual reality!
Our tasks: the app virtual vision experience 2
Designing a virtual, interactively controlled demo room for experiencing age-related visual defects, including a visualization of the number of glasses that will not be needed thanks to lens replacement.
Our solution:
Current iPads can render sufficiently realistic graphics smoothly. That's why we designed and decorated a virtual room in “Unity”—a game engine normally used to develop video games. The virtual space is furnished in midcentury modern style and has appealing objects to explore and decipher at every distance - near, medium and far.
The iPad's screen is vertically split: optimal natural vision on the right and age-related degradation(s) on the left.
The degree of vision degradation is controlled with an interactive timeline at the bottom of the screen. This allows patients to see directly how their vision can deteriorate with age.
Integration age-matrix glasses-factor—or: (re)count how many pairs of glasses will there be?
An overlay at the top left of the screen breaks down the increasing age-related visual defects (near, middle, distance, imaging, contrast, clouding) in detail on a scale of 0-100%. Additionally, it counts how many new pairs of glasses patients can save with intraocular lens surgery — up to fifteen pairs of glasses in the age period from 40 to 80 years!
The age timeline makes a complex data matrix experienceable and understandable — it's the most intuitive, three-dimensional Excel visualization that Microsoft can only dream of.
A common piece of advice from physicians is to wait until old age before getting a lens implant. With the age timeline, we show how much a lens replacement at a younger age can improve quality of life. This enables and empowers patients to make an informed decision.
Scientifically correct, interactively experiencable and easily understood through play—together with 1stQ, we make complex topics easily accessible. Patients need to understand how vision works and experience the effects of visual impairments themselves. Only then can they make an informed decision for or against intraocular lenses.
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