Time at the curb, not the rate of head scanning, distinguishes street crossing in virtual reality with severe-to-profound visual impairment

Severe-to-profound visual impairment is linked to longer and more variable curb time at virtual street crossings, with step-off latency increasing 1.57–1.82×.

• Why it matters: People may adjust street-crossing behavior when vision is severely limited, but it is unclear whether they compensate by scanning more or by spending more time at the curb.
• What they did: Normally sighted controls were tested with normal vision and Bangerter filters simulating ~20/2000, and 17 adults with severe-to-profound visual impairment crossed a virtual street; step-off latency and cumulative absolute head yaw were analyzed with mixed-effects models and ex-Gaussian fits.
• The result: In severe-to-profound visual impairment, extra latency reflected a longer ex-Gaussian slow tail (tau longer by 3.40 s without and 6.20 s with moving vehicles), while cumulative head yaw did not significantly increase before step-off.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.