Method and device for treating / preventing refractive errors as well as for image processing and display

A method useful for the treatment of existing refractive errors and/or prevention of the development of refractive errors in a human subject, comprising:

• a. determining a gaze direction of a first eye of a subject viewing an image on a display screen and providing said determined gaze direction to a computer processor;
• b. subsequent to ‘a’, based on said determined gaze direction of the first eye, with a computer processor generating a display image for display to the first eye on said display screen from a received digital base image, wherein:
• i. a central-vision portion of said display image that corresponds to a portion of the field of view of the first eye that includes said determined gaze direction, wherein the central-vision portion is either:
• unmodified compared to a corresponding portion in said base image;
• or modified so that visual characteristics of said central-vision portion of said display image are changed compared to corresponding visual characteristics of a corresponding portion in said base image which modification improves the image quality of said central-vision portion relative to the corresponding portion in said base image, and
• ii. a non-central vision portion of said display image that is different from said central-vision portion is either:
• unmodified compared to a corresponding portion in said base image;
• or modified so that visual characteristics of said non-central vision portion of said display image are changed compared to corresponding visual characteristics of a corresponding portion in said base image,
• wherein as a result of said generating, an image quality of said non-central vision portion of said display image is lower than the image quality of said central-vision portion of said display image;
• and
• c. displaying said generated display image on said display screen so that the first eye of the subject views said display image on said display screen,
• wherein said non-central portion of said display image is modified so that visual characteristics of said non-central vision portion of said display image are changed compared to corresponding visual characteristics of a corresponding portion in said base image which modification degrades the image quality of said non-central vision portion relative to the corresponding portion in said base image,
• wherein said modification which degrades the image quality of said non-central vision portion of said display image relative to the corresponding portion in said base image includes changing values of pixels in said non-central vision portion relative to the values of the corresponding pixels in said corresponding portion in said base image, where the magnitude and/or type of change to said pixel value is independent of a value of any neighboring pixel in said base image.

A device for image processing and display, comprising:

• a computer processor functionally associated with a display screen and an eye tracker, said eye tracker configured for determining a gaze direction of a first eye of a person viewing an image on said display screen and for providing a determined gaze direction to said computer processor;
• said computer processor configured:
• to generate a display image from a received digital base image based on a gaze direction of the first eye received from said eye tracker, wherein:
• i. a central-vision portion of said display image that corresponds to a portion of the field of view of the first eye that includes said determined gaze direction, wherein the central vision portion is either:
• unmodified compared to a corresponding portion in said base image;
• or modified so that visual characteristics of said central-vision portion of said display image are changed compared to corresponding visual characteristics of a corresponding portion in said base image which modification improves the image quality of said central-vision portion relative to the corresponding portion in said base image, and
• ii. a non-central vision portion of said display image that is different from said central-vision portion is either:
• unmodified compared to a corresponding portion in said base image;
• or modified so that visual characteristics of said non-central vision portion of said display image are changed compared to corresponding visual characteristics of a corresponding portion in said base image,
• wherein as a result of said generating, an image quality of said non-central vision portion of said display image is lower than the image quality of said central-vision portion of said display image;
• and
• to display said generated display image on said display screen so that the first eye of the person views said display image on said display screen,
• wherein said computer processor is configured to modify a base image so that visual characteristics of a non-central portion of a generated display image are changed compared to corresponding visual characteristics of a corresponding portion in the base image which modification degrades the image quality of the non-central vision portion of the generated display image relative to the corresponding portion in the base image, and
• wherein said modification which degrades the image quality of said non-central vision portion of a generated display image relative to the corresponding portion in the base image includes changing values of pixels in said non-central vision portion relative to the values of the corresponding pixels in said corresponding portion in the base image, where the magnitude and/or type of change to said pixel value is independent of a value of any neighboring pixel in the base image.