Vision Without Sight: Exploring the Environment with a Portable Camera

没有视觉的视觉：用便携式相机探索环境 项目摘要 随着计算机视觉对象识别算法在准确性和速度方面的改进，计算机变得越来越重要。 更强大和紧凑，它是越来越实际的实现这样的算法在便携式 设备，例如具有照相功能的手机。这种“移动的视觉”方法允许视力正常的用户 识别物体，标志，地点和环境中的其他功能，只需拍摄照片，等待 几秒钟后，目标识别分析的结果。这种方法对盲人或 视障（VI）用户，他们可能没有其他方法来识别重要的功能， 无法被非视觉线索察觉然而，为了使该方法对VI用户实用， 必须适当地促进用户和使用相机的环境之间的通信。例如，由于 用户可能事先不知道将相机指向期望目标的哪个方向，他或她必须 能够左右平移相机来搜索它，并在检测到它时接收快速反馈。 借鉴PI和他的同事在VI用户对象识别系统方面的过去经验，我们 建议研究使用移动的视觉技术来探索环境中的特征，特别是 检查发现这些特征的过程并获得对它们的指导。我们的主要 目标是调查这些技术的用户为加快勘探而采取的策略 处理、设计和测试与这些策略一致的最有效的用户界面，并评估 并对这些技术的效率进行基准测试。其结果将是一套最低设计标准， 将指定系统性能参数、用户界面功能和操作策略 这对于VI用户的任何移动的视觉对象识别系统都是必要的。

Vision without Sight: Exploring the Environment with a Portable Camera Project Summary As computer vision object recognition algorithms improve in accuracy and speed, and computers become more powerful and compact, it is becoming increasingly practical to implement such algorithms on portable devices such as camera-enabled cell phones. This "mobile vision" approach allows normally sighted users to identify objects, signs, places and other features in the environment simply by snapping a photo and waiting a few seconds for the results of the object recognition analysis. The approach holds great promise for blind or visually impaired (VI) users, who may have no other means of identifying important features that are undetectable by non-visual cues. However, in order for the approach to be practical for VI users, the interaction between the user and the environment using the camera must be properly facilitated. For instance, since the user may not know in advance which direction to point the camera towards a desired target, he or she must be able to pan the camera left and right to search for it, and receive rapid feedback whenever it is detected. Drawing on past experience of the PI and his colaborators on object recognition systems for VI users, we propose to study the use of mobile vision technologies for exploring features in the environment, specificaly examining the process of discovering these features and obtaining guidance towards them. Our main objectives are to investigate the strategies adopted by users of these technologies to expedite the exploration process, devise and test maximally effective user interfaces consistent with these strategies, and to assess and benchmark the efficiency of the technologies. The result will be a set of minimum design standards that will specify the system performance parameters, the user interface functionality and the operational strategies necessary for any mobile vision object recognition system for VI users.