Handsight: Mobile Services for Low Vision

Handsight：低视力移动服务

• 批准号: 7913126
• 负责人: Peter Winthrop Hallinan
• 金额: $ 65.67万
• 依托单位: BLINDSIGHT CORPORATION
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-04-01 至 2012-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7913126
• 关键词: Activities of Daily Living; Address; Adoption; Architecture; Area; Businesses; Car Phone; Cellular Phone; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.); Computer Vision Systems; Computer software; Data; Databases; Dependence; Destinations; Detection; Devices; Education; Eye; Feedback; Fees; Focus Groups; Friends; Funding; Future; Grant; Health; Human; Individual; Institutes; Internet; Letters; Licensing; Location; Maps; Medicine; Methods; Mission; Parents; Persons; Phase; Plug-in; Principal Investigator; Process; Provider; Reading; Research; Research Design; Research Infrastructure; Research Institute; Research Project Grants; Research Support; Services; Simulate; Small Business Innovation Research Grant; Social Interaction; Special Equipment; System; Target Populations; Technology; Telephone; Text; Touch sensation; Training; Travel; United States National Institutes of Health; Update; Vision; Vision Disorders; Visual impairment; Voice; Work; blind; computer center; cost; design; digital; experience; falls; innovation; open source; programs; public health relevance; response; success; tool; usability; vibration; voice recognition

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Handsight is a mobile phone service that offers an affordable, extensible set of automated sight-assistant functions to millions of blind and low-vision persons at $30/month atop standard voice and data fees. To the user, Handsight is simply a mobile phone application, requiring no special equipment or updating. By aiming a mobile telephone<s camera in roughly the right direction and pressing just one button, a Handsight user can snap a picture, send it to the Handsight computer center along with location data, and have a response within seconds. Moving the key computation and data from the handset to web servers cut cost, eases technology upgrades, and enables numerous data and technology partnerships needed to rapidly solve a broad spectrum of tasks. To allow widespread adoption Handsight uses voice, keypad, and vibration for user interaction; and for extensibility it is built on open-source software both on the handset and on the web application infrastructure. The range of tasks encountered by the blind and low-vision requires an array of components to solve: some are more heavily text-oriented and involve no location/navigational feedback (distinguishing and identifying different medicines; finding the phone bill in a stack of letters); some are more specifically navigational (locating the exact store entrance, finding the bus stop); yet others are informational (finding out when the next bus is due). Since we aim to provide a broadly useful tool, Handsight has to accommodate the whole range of task types. We are therefore proposing to build an architecture that integrates a set of components addressing the various task types, from text-detection and recognition software to navigational databases. Handsight<s application programming interface (API) will enable third parties to add capabilities to solve new tasks. As a web service, Handsight can evolve as computer vision and navigation technologies advance without requiring users to upgrade handsets or buy new versions of software. Phase I of this project was funded by the Dept. of Education / NIDRR and completed successfully between 10/01/2007 and 04/01/2008 under grant # H133S070044. It demonstrated not just the viability of the proposed project but also likely demand for such a service. (The NIDRR<s immutable deadlines precluded us from pursuing a Phase II with that agency.) Phase II consists in building the cell phone application and remote processing infrastructure with APIs to enable plug-in of the basic and future features. Subcontractor Smith-Kettlewell Institute for Eye Research will assure usability by blind and low-vision users; data partner NAVTEQ will provide a range of leading-edge digital map data. Blindsight already owns fast, accurate text detection and recognition software, and has experience in building scalable web services. A minimum set of features that make for a system with widespread appeal will be developed and/or licensed, and integrated into the service. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The proposed Handsight service falls squarely in the NEI mission to support research and programs with respect to visual disorders and the special health problems and requirements of the blind. It aims to provide a maximum of mobility and independence to the blind and low-vision using today<s mobile phone infrastructure via automated web services, using a minimum of specialized hardware and training. The 3 million-plus blind and low-vision persons in the U.S. encounter barriers to such activities of daily living as travel, navigation, and shopping, reading and social interactions. The difficulty of recognizing when a friend is nearby, of finding a product in a grocery store, of making change or locating a destination building often require sighted friends or assistants to make these tasks possible. This is expensive, difficult to arrange, and increases dependence. The Handsight system will simplify or make possible to many a new set of tasks previously requiring human assistance or special-purpose devices.

描述（由申请人提供）：Handsight是一款手机服务，可为数百万的盲人和低视觉人员提供一套负担得起的，可扩展的视觉辅助功能，价格为每月30美元，在标准语音和数据费用上。对于用户而言，Handsight只是一个手机应用程序，不需要特殊的设备或更新。通过将移动电话摄像机大致瞄准正确的方向并仅按下一个按钮，Handsight用户可以将图片拍摄，并将其与位置数据一起发送到Handsight Computer Center，并在几秒钟内进行响应。将关键计算和数据从手机转移到Web服务器降低成本，简化技术升级，并实现迅速解决广泛任务所需的许多数据和技术伙伴关系。为了允许广泛的采用，Handsight使用语音，键盘和振动进行用户交互；为了扩展性，它是在手机和Web应用程序基础架构上的开源软件上构建的。盲人和低视觉遇到的任务范围需要一系列要解决的组件：有些组件更加面向文本，没有涉及位置/导航反馈（区分和识别不同的药物；在一堆字母中找到电话费）；有些更具体地导航（找到确切的商店入口，找到公交车站）；还有其他人是信息的（找出下一辆公共汽车何时到期）。由于我们的目标是提供广泛有用的工具，因此，Handsight必须适应整个任务类型。因此，我们建议建立一个架构，该体系结构集成了一组解决各种任务类型的组件，从文本检测和识别软件到导航数据库。 Handsight <s应用程序编程接口（API）将使第三方添加解决新任务的功能。作为一项Web服务，随着计算机视觉和导航技术的发展，Handsight可以发展，而无需用户升级手机或购买新版本的软件。该项目的第一阶段由教育部/NIDRR部门资助，并在2007年10月10日至2008年4月10日之间成功完成，并在赠款＃H133S070044下完成。它不仅证明了拟议项目的生存能力，而且可能要求对这种服务的需求。 （NIDRR <s不变的截止日期使我们无法与该机构一起追求II期。）II阶段在于使用API​​构建手机应用程序和远程处理基础架构来启用基本和未来功能的插件。分包商Smith-Kettlewell眼睛研究研究所将确保盲人和低视觉使用者的可用性；数据合作伙伴NAVTEQ将提供一系列领先的数字地图数据。 Blindsight已经拥有快速，准确的文本检测和识别软件，并且具有构建可扩展Web服务的经验。将开发和/或许可，并将其集成到服务中。 公共卫生相关性：拟议的Handight服务在NEI任务中完全属于支持视觉障碍以及盲人的特殊健康问题和要求的研究和计划。它的目的是使用自动化的Web服务使用当今的手机基础架构提供最大的移动性和独立性，并使用最少的专用硬件和培训来提供<s的手机基础架构。美国300万以上的盲人和低视觉人会遇到旅行，航行以及购物，阅读和社交互动等日常生活活动的障碍。认识到何时在附近的朋友，在杂货店中找到产品的困难，进行更改或定位目的地建筑物通常需要视力的朋友或助手来使这些任务成为可能。这很昂贵，很难安排和增加依赖性。 Handsight系统将简化或使许多以前需要人类援助或特殊用途设备的新任务成为可能。