Augmented and Virtual Reality App for People with Low Vision

August 21, 2017 – This week Samsung Electronics announced Relúmĭno, a new app that uses virtual and augmented reality to complement and enhance images for users with low vision. Samsung’s in-house augmented and virtual reality (VR) initiative, named C-Lab (short for Creative Lab), consists of a team of 350 engineers who were given time off and encouraged to develop their own ideas. Their newest venture, Relúmĭno, is a Samsung Gear VR app that pairs the headset with the user’s smartphone cameras to make images more accessible through magnification, color contrast adjustment, outlining objects, and screen filtering. Comprised of the VR headset and the user’s smartphone, the team hopes Relúmĭno may help users supplement their eyesight without the need for more costly and specialized equipment. Future work may include streamlined Relúmĭno hardware by developing more socially acceptable, less conspicuous smart glasses so that people with low vision would be more inclined to use the device and software in their daily lives, at home, and in the community.