SoylentNews

janrinok writes:

Spectral Edge, an image processing company (started by researches with the University of East Anglia in the U.K) has announced that it has integrated its technology into a chipset with STMicroelectronics 'Cannes' set-top-box, offering customers with colorblindness an improved viewing performance [techxplore.com]. The new technology is called Eyeteq— Spectral Edge was created as a spin-off to market the technology to TV makers.

Approximately 250 million people, 4 percent of the world's population, are colorblind (8 percent of men) to some extent, with the majority having difficulty distinguishing between red and green—most seem them both as a shade of grey. The new technology does not change that, instead, it makes subtle changes to the image to make the two shades of grey shown distinguishable by those with color blindness. Spectral Edge is, of course, hoping to integrate the technology into other set top boxes as well, perhaps making it a standard option on future television screens. That could happen, because the changes that are made to assist colorblind viewers are not evident to those without colorblindness—thus, families, friends, etc. could watch the same programs together, with both getting the most benefit.

The technology works by operating on individual screen images, grabbing, fixing them, and then sending them to the screen—all quickly enough so that the person viewing the screen is unaware that it is occurring. The company has been working on the technology for several years but has just recently integrated it into a chipset, one that also comes with setup software that allows users to adjust the kind and amount of fixing that is performed, customizing it for their own vision abilities.

There is also a video [youtu.be].

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