Visual Impairment Simulator Based on the Hadamard Product

In this paper, a real-time image processing system designed to simulate visual impairment for the normally sighted is presented. The system consists of a video camera, a computer, and a virtual reality (VR) headset. Based on the Hadamard (or Schur) product of the camera's video signal and a set of predefined masks, users can experience eye diseases such as macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, hemianopsia, among others. A quantitative user study is presented to illustrate the most complex daily task people with visual impairments face: reading.