Spectral Edge (www.spectraledge.co.uk) today announced Eye2TV, its new smart HDMI adapter for colour-blind TV viewers and gaming enthusiasts. The new, UK-developed, product enhances video content for the estimated 4% of the world’s population that suffers from colour-blindness, making it easy to distinguish between red and green features and enabling on-screen objects to be easily distinguished.
The Eye2TV adapter is initially available via the Kickstarter website, where it can be purchased for £50 plus shipping. Kickstarter enables projects to raise money by attracting pre-orders and donations from supporters and Spectral Edge is aiming to raise £100,000 by 13th June 2015 in order to bring the Eye2TV adapter to market. As well as the chance to buy single or multiple Eye2TV adapters, the project offers the opportunity to receive a high quality image pre-enhanced for colour-blind people for a pledge of £10. The Kickstarter page is at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/22739545/eye2tv-video-enhancement-for-colour-blind-people.
The Eye2TV adaptor works with any HDMI video source, such as a cable or satellite set top box, DVD player, Freeview/AppleTV/Roku box or games console. It connects between the video source and the display, which can be a HD TV or monitor with an HDMI input.
All video is then enhanced on a frame by frame basis through Spectral Edge’s patented Eyeteq image enhancement technology, offering a dramatically improved viewing experience. Based on research from the University of East Anglia (UEA), Eyeteq uses mathematical perception models to modify image colours. Uniquely, Eye2TV does this with minimal impact on the picture that is seen by those who do not have colour blindness, or “colour normals”, enabling both to watch the same screen together.
Through its small remote control unit the picture quality can be adjusted to suit the unique colour-vision of the individual viewer. An iOS and Android app will also be developed to control Eye2TV.
The viewing experience of those with colour blindness is particularly affected when watching particular content types. It can be difficult to tell sports teams apart, particularly if one is playing in red and the other in green, while programmes about wildlife, cookery and art are severely impacted. Playing video games featuring predominantly red/green characters and those with subtle colour differences between good guys and monsters is also difficult for those with colour blindness.
“The inability to enjoy watching TV or to play video games alongside friends and family is a major frustration to those suffering from colour-blindness, significantly impacting their quality of life,” said Christopher Cytera, Managing Director, Spectral Edge. “Our image enhancement technology is proven to solve this major accessibility issue, and the Eye2TV adapter is poised to transform how colour-blind people, and their families, watch TV and video content. By launching the project on Kickstarter we can accelerate bringing our technology to the consumer electronics market, giving those with colour-blindness the chance to become early adopters and improve their viewing experience.”
Provided that adequate funds are raised by the deadline of 13th June, Eye2TV will be developed in 2015, for production and shipment worldwide by March 2016. To find out more, advance purchase an adapter or to make a pledge visit https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/22739545/eye2tv-video-enhancement-for-colour-blind-people. Spectral Edge welcomes pledges from companies in the TV business interested in distributing/branding Eye2TV.
