Method and apparatus for enhancing visual perception of display lights, warning lights and the like, and of stimuli used in testing for ocular disease

Abstract

Apparent object motion is created to stimulate rapid M cell response in an observer's visual system. In one embodiment, first and second pairs of lights, spaced apart about 1 to 60 minutes of visual angle at the viewing distance, are operated such that the innermost of each pair is activated for duration T1, and after a duration T2, the outermost of each pair is activated for the duration of a warning event. T1 is determined by luminous energy intensity from the innermost light pair, while duration T2 is selected to preclude an overlap in the observer's visual system between response to the end of the first-activated light, and the response commencing with the start of the second-activated light. An observer rapidly perceives the lights as looming closer, due to the inward-to-outward sweeping visual image that enhances salience. Because the observer's M cells appear to be primarily stimulated by the luminous energy, the observer can react more rapidly to the warning event than to conventional warning lights. In another embodiment, an M-cell stimulus from a flashing pattern enhances an observer's attention and response to a warning or hazard. Another embodiment helps detect onset of glaucoma by stimulating a patient's visual system to evoke M cell response, using rays from a pair of spaced apart lights, sequentially operated according to the present invention.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.