Textual Information Access for the Visually Impaired

为视障人士提供文本信息访问

• 批准号: 9987944
• 负责人: Larry Davis
• 金额: $ 70万
• 依托单位: University of Maryland, College Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2000
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2000-04-01 至 2004-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9987944&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Textual; Information; Access; Visually; Impaired

An ever-increasing segment of the population suffers from low vision resulting from complications of disease and old age. Surveys conducted by one of the Co-PIs as part of a previous project have determined, that the key information which is not available to people with low vision is textual information, usually of a directive or warning nature. For example, shopping in a large department store in a mall might involve looking for signs indicating where the store is, reading aisle signs in the store, and looking at product names, at labels and prices. This research will develop a "seeing-eye" computer to help people with low vision to observe and receive such information, so that they can participate more efficiently and comfortably in every day activities, and thereby lead more fulfilling and productive lives. The system will be composed of a digital video camera, computer, user interface, and speech or magnified visual output that can detect textual information in the environment, understand it using OCR, and provide it to the user who either has low vision or is blind. To achieve these goals, the PIs will in collaboration with colleagues at Johns Hopkins University build, over the first six months and then over the first two years, prototype systems using mostly existing technology and extensions to vision algorithms we have developed for identification of text regions in images and OCR, which can be evaluated on volunteer patients at the Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute and the National Federation for the Blind.. The functionality and range of applicability of our prototypes will necessarily be limited. Simultaneously, the PIs will work on long-term research problems that must be addressed to develop next generation seeing-eye computers with greater scalability and capability. In year three patient-volunteers at Wilmer and at the NFB will perform evaluations of the developed prototypes Subsequently, successful results will be commercialized and brought to the larger patient body (as have previous developments at Wilmer). Fundamental research problems to be addressed include: real-time algorithms for detection and rectification of text on planes and cylinders subject to perspective distortions; OCR from digital video, and OCR for text on textured backgrounds; and more robust and efficient algorithms and systems for stabilization and super-resolution of text blocks from video streams.

不断增加的人口部分受到疾病和老年并发症而导致的低视力。 作为先前项目的一部分，由CO-PIS进行的调查确定，低视力的人无法获得的关键信息是文本信息，通常具有指令或警告性质。 例如，在购物中心的大型百货商店购物可能涉及寻找指示商店在哪里的标志，在商店中阅读过道标志，并查看产品名称，标签和价格。 这项研究将开发一台“远见”计算机，以帮助有低视力的人观察和接收此类信息，以便他们可以更有效，更舒适地参加每天的活动，从而带来更多充实和富有成效的生活。 该系统将由数字摄像机，计算机，用户界面和语音或放大的视觉输出组成，该输出可以检测环境中的文本信息，使用OCR了解它，并将其提供给具有低视力或盲目的用户。 为了实现这些目标，PI将与约翰·霍普金斯大学（Johns Hopkins University）建造的同事合作，在头六个月，然后在头两年中，原型系统主要使用现有技术和对视觉算法的扩展，我们为识别图像和OCR中的文本区域而开发的远景，可以在Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute和Wilmer Ophthalmological Insturate和Ophthalmological Insturatiation and Opheriogenation Inderitation Inderitation Inderitation Interiuttion和Ophthalmological Instourter中进行评估。原型一定会受到限制。 同时，PI将解决必须解决的长期研究问题，以开发具有更大的可扩展性和能力的下一代视力计算机。 在Wilmer和NFB的三名患者志愿者中，随后将对开发的原型进行评估，成功的结果将被商业化并带给更大的患者体（如Wilmer的先前发展）。 待解决的基本研究问题包括：用于检测和纠正平面和圆柱体的文本的实时算法，这些算法受到透视扭曲的影响； 数字视频中的OCR，以及有关纹理背景的OCR的OCR； 以及更强大，有效的算法和系统，用于稳定和从视频流中文本块的超级分辨率。