Methods and Apparatus for Vision Enhancement

Abstract

A system and methods for the enhancement of a user's vision using a head-mounted and user-controllable device including a magnification bubble having variable attributes wherein a portion of the scene is magnified within the complete scene, wherein the user is able to modify, in real-time, how the images are processed including the attributes of the magnification bubble.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A portable user vision-enhancement system comprising:
 a smartphone including a display, a processor, a memory, and a camera;   a pair of goggles wherein the smartphone is operatively mounted on the goggles such that the camera views a scene in front of the user and is operable to obtain input video images of a scene;   a program stored in the memory wherein the processor is programmed to execute the stored program to transform the input video images of the scene into a stream of output video images of the scene that appear on the display, where the processor is programmed to vary one or more attributes of the output video images in response to an input signal provided by the user to the processor;   where said one or more attributes includes a contrast, a blur, an ambient light level, and an edge enhancement.   
     
     
         2 . The portable user vision-enhancement system of  claim 1 , where the one or more attributes includes the contrast. 
     
     
         3 . The portable user vision-enhancement system of  claim 1 , where said one or more attributes includes the blur. 
     
     
         4 . The portable user vision-enhancement system of  claim 1 , where said one or more attributes includes the ambient light level. 
     
     
         5 . The portable user vision-enhancement system of  claim 1 , where said one or more attributes includes the edge enhancement. 
     
     
         6 . The portable user vision-enhancement system of  claim 1 , where said one or more attributes includes the contrast, the blur, the ambient light level, and the edge enhancement. 
     
     
         7 . The portable user vision-enhancement system of  claim 1 , where said one or more attributes includes the contrast and the ambient light level.