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.

越来越多的人因疾病并发症和老年而患有视力低下的问题。 作为先前项目的一部分，一位共同负责人进行的调查确定，视力不佳者无法获得的关键信息是文本信息，通常具有指示或警告性质。 例如，在购物中心的大型百货商店购物可能需要寻找指示商店位置的标志，阅读商店中的过道标志，以及查看产品名称、标签和价格。 这项研究将开发一种“导视”计算机，帮助弱视人士观察和接收这些信息，使他们能够更高效、更舒适地参与日常活动，从而过上更充实、更富有成效的生活。 该系统将由数码摄像机、计算机、用户界面和语音或放大的视觉输出组成，可以检测环境中的文本信息，使用 OCR 理解它，并将其提供给弱视或盲人用户。 为了实现这些目标，PI 将与约翰·霍普金斯大学的同事合作，在前六个月和前两年内，使用我们为识别图像和 OCR 中的文本区域而开发的视觉算法和视觉算法的大部分现有技术和扩展来构建原型系统，这些原型系统可以在 Wilmer 眼科研究所和全国盲人联合会的志愿者患者身上进行评估。 原型必然受到限制。 同时，PI 将致力于解决必须解决的长期研究问题，以开发具有更大可扩展性和功能的下一代导视计算机。 第三年，Wilmer 和 NFB 的患者志愿者将对开发的原型进行评估。随后，成功的结果将被商业化并应用于更大的患者群体（就像 Wilmer 之前的开发一样）。 要解决的基本研究问题包括：用于检测和校正受到透视扭曲的平面和圆柱体上的文本的实时算法； 数字视频中的 OCR 以及纹理背景上的文本 OCR； 以及更强大、更高效的算法和系统，用于视频流中文本块的稳定和超分辨率。