Virtual reality techniques for characterizing visual capabilities

A virtual environment system comprising:

• a head-mountable display configured to display a virtual reality environment;
• and
• a computing device comprising:
• one or more data processors;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing instructions which, when executed on the one or more data processors, cause the one or more data processors to perform a method comprising:
• identifying a task to be executed in the virtual reality environment by the head-mountable display, and where display of the virtual reality environment includes at least one optical setting that is dynamically modified during execution of the task;
• facilitating execution of the task, wherein execution of the task includes displaying a plurality of virtual objects in the display of the virtual reality environment by the head-mountable display;
• obtaining, during execution of the task, a set of sensor data from a set of sensors associated with a user;
• processing the set of sensor data to identify a subset of the plurality of virtual objects interacted with by a user and a time of interacting with each of the subset of the plurality of virtual objects;
• processing the set of sensor data to derive spatial movements of the head-mountable display, wherein the spatial movements are indicative of head movements of the user when interacting with the plurality of virtual objects;
• deriving a first performance metric based on the subset of the plurality of virtual objects interacted with by the user and the time of interacting with each of the subset of the plurality of virtual objects and a second performance metric based on the derived spatial movements;
• and
• generating an output based on the first and second performance metric, the output representing a functional visual capability of the user with dynamically modified optical settings in the virtual reality environment.

A computer-implemented method comprising:

• identifying a task to be executed in a virtual reality environment, where the virtual reality environment is configured to be displayed in a head-mountable display, and where the display of the virtual reality environment includes at least one optical setting that is dynamically modified during execution of the task;
• facilitating execution of the task, wherein execution of the task includes displaying a plurality of virtual objects in the display of the virtual reality environment by the head-mountable display;
• obtaining, during execution of the task, a set of sensor data from a set of sensors associated with a user;
• processing the set of sensor data to map a first set of coordinates in the virtual reality environment representing movements directed by a user with a second set of coordinates specifying locations of the plurality of virtual objects in the virtual reality environment;
• deriving a first performance metric based on the mapped coordinates;
• processing the set of sensor data to derive spatial movements of the head-mountable display during execution of the task, the spatial movements indicating head movements of the user to interact with the virtual objects during the task;
• deriving a second performance metric based on the derived spatial movements;
• and
• generating an output based on the first performance metric and the second performance metric, the output representing a functional visual capability of the user to interact with the virtual objects with dynamically modified optical settings in the virtual reality environment.