Image technology improves colour blind TV viewing

1st December 2014

Spectral Edge

Siobhan O'Gorman

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Offering an improved TV viewing experience to individuals with colour blindness, an image enhancement technology is now available for integration into consumer STBs. Eyeteq technology, developed by Spectral Edge at the University of East Anglia, targets the estimated 4% of the world’s population that suffer from colour blindness.

Enabling colour blind viewers to see details they previously could not, the technology allows for a better differentiation between red and green. To enable those with and without colour blindness to watch the same screen together, Eyeteq technology has a minimal impact on the picture.

To allow the 8% of men and 1 in 200 women around the world that are colour blind to experience improved visibility when viewing both still and moving images, the technology utilises mathematical perception models to modify image colours.

Before being transmitted to the TV screen, content streamed to a set top box is enhanced on a frame by frame basis. Programmes such as sports, cookery and nature, which contain a large amount of red and green in their images, are particularly enhanced.

“Our Eyeteq technology has been proven to enhance the still image viewing experience for colour-blind people, and we are now extending this to TV and video content,” commented Christopher Cytera, Managing Director, Spectral Edge. “Service providers and STB manufacturers can see the benefits in increasing accessibility to colour blind viewers, and Eyeteq provides the perfect solution for the living room TV screen. Our trials have proved the concept, and it is now ready for integration into prime time consumer technology in order to transform how colour blind people, and their families, watch TV.”