Daytime vs Nighttime Stair Navigation Task to Characterize Glaucoma-Related Visual Disability

Researchers have developed virtual reality (VR) simulations to measure vision-related disability among patients with glaucoma and other eye disorders. For example, participants wearing VR headsets were asked to walk up and then down 2 flights of stairs under day-illuminated and night-illuminated conditions. This video compares the VR performance of a patient with glaucoma completing the tasks. The patient took 93.4 seconds with 1 collision under simulated daytime lighting and 181.6 seconds with 6 collisions under simulated nighttime lighting. The performance suggests that VR simulations can help eye care professionals better understand from patients' perspective how visual impairment impairs them in their daily lives. MD indicates mean deviation; VFI, visual field index. Click the related article link for video illustrating performance on simulated supermarket shopping and stair navigation and for complete details of the VR project.