An approach to designing visual displays for the elderly is described that is based on a model of human vision. This model is represented by two properties : contrast sensitivity and ocular transmittance. Real-time video-processing hardware is used to compensate for the deterioration in human vision that comes with aging. It sharpens edges and corrects the color balance. Psychophysical experiments using test charts showed that the proposed approach improves the contrast sensitivity of elderly viewers. A prototype system improved more than two times of the visibility of images shown on visual displays.
