Collaborative Research: CNS Core: Small: SmartSight: an AI-Based Computing Platform to Assist Blind and Visually Impaired People

合作研究：中枢神经系统核心：小型：SmartSight：基于人工智能的计算平台，帮助盲人和视障人士

• 批准号: 2418188
• 负责人: Mohsen Amini Salehi
• 金额: $ 24.97万
• 依托单位: University of North Texas
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-10-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2418188&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; CNS; Core; Small

This project will design SmartSight, a platform that combines the computing ability of the device-to-cloud continuum with Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods to enable ambient perception for blind and visually impaired people (VIP), thereby improving their quality of life and social inclusion. SmartSight operates based on smart glasses and provides real-time perception for its user by efficiently deploying machine learning and approximate computing methods across a continuum of tiers—from local tiers (device and edge) to remote tiers (fog and cloud platforms). SmartSight uses federated learning to take advantage of collective observations of users and improve its perception accuracy. The platform is robust against failure in its communication with remote tiers and is able to provide its basic functionality using only local tiers. For that purpose, SmartSight dynamically adjusts approximate computing knobs and allocates critical tasks to resources, only if they can produce timely results. A prototype of SmartSight will be developed and tested with blind and VIP to assess its usability, robustness, convenience, and discreteness. SmartSight enables “AI+Systems for social good.” The project results will impact not only the forefront of scientific discovery, but also society by improving the quality of life and social inclusion of the blind and VIP. Other citizens who suffer from some form of cognitive decline (e.g., Alzheimer's disease) will benefit from SmartSight technology and be able to function as independent members of society. The steps towards addressing these hurdles not only will improve the quality of life for these people but will also bring about a remarkable cost-saving to society as a whole. The potential gain is even greater when considered on a global scale. The intelligent resource allocation and approximate computing methods that will be developed for the SmartSight platform can be adapted to other soft real-time computing systems, and the proposed efficient and scalable approaches for automated parameter tuning and ubiquitous model execution can be employed in other tunable software systems.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该项目将设计SmartSight，这是一个将设备到云连续体的计算能力与人工智能（AI）方法相结合的平台，为盲人和视障人士（VIP）提供环境感知，从而提高他们的生活质量和社会包容性。SmartSight基于智能眼镜运行，并通过在从本地层（设备和边缘）到远程层（雾和云平台）的连续层中有效地部署机器学习和近似计算方法，为用户提供实时感知。SmartSight使用联合学习来利用用户的集体观察并提高其感知准确性。该平台在与远程层的通信失败时是健壮的，并且能够仅使用本地层提供其基本功能。为此，SmartSight动态调整近似计算旋钮，并将关键任务分配给资源，前提是这些任务能够及时产生结果。SmartSight的原型将由blind和VIP进行开发和测试，以评估其可用性、稳健性、便利性和离散性。SmartSight实现“人工智能+社会公益系统”。项目成果不仅将影响科学发现的前沿，还将通过改善盲人和贵宾的生活质量和社会包容来影响社会。其他患有某种形式的认知衰退（如阿尔茨海默病）的公民将受益于SmartSight技术，并能够作为独立的社会成员发挥作用。为解决这些障碍而采取的步骤不仅将改善这些人的生活质量，而且还将为整个社会带来显著的成本节约。在全球范围内考虑，潜在的收益甚至更大。为SmartSight平台开发的智能资源分配和近似计算方法可适用于其他软实时计算系统，所提出的自动参数调整和泛在模型执行的高效可扩展方法可用于其他可调软件系统。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。