More than one million persons in France are blind in the central part of their visual field because of a non-curable retinopathy (mainly Age-related Macular Degeneration – AMD). This central field loss induces dramatic deficits in several high-level perceptual abilities: mainly text reading, face recognition, and visual search of objects in cluttered environments, thus degrading the autonomy and the quality of life of these people. To adapt to this irreversible handicap, visually impaired people must learn how to use the peripheral parts of their visual field optimally. This requires the development of an “eccentric viewing (EV)” ability allowing low vision persons to “look away” from the entity (e.g., a face) they want to identify. Two kinds of assistance are commonly proposed to help patients cope with their handicap: visual rehabilitation methods whose principle relies on perceptual training across multiple sessions, and visual aids that usually consist of some sort of magnifier.
