Screen and virtual reality-based testing of contrast sensitivity

Contrast sensitivity is a key visual ability for everyday tasks, as well as a potential indicator of important optical and neurological diseases. Current clinical standards, based on visual discrimination performance on printed charts, present problems that could be bypassed using electronic devices. This work describes the development of new tests for contrast sensitivity, based on the detection of a moving target on a computer screen and in virtual reality headset. It presents preliminary evaluation of these innovations by comparison of their performance, using healthy adults with normal vision and by artificially altering their contrast sensitivity. The results demonstrate consistent correlation between all test modalities explored