Textual Information Access for the Visually Impaired

越来越多的人患有疾病和老年并发症造成的低视力。 作为先前项目的一部分，其中一个Co-PI进行的调查已经确定，视力低下的人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涉及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“看眼”电脑，帮助视力低下的人观察和接收这些信息，使他们能够更有效和舒适地参与日常活动，从而过上更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，可以检测环境中的文本信息，使用OCR理解它，并将其提供给视力低下或失明的用户。 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建立原型系统，主要使用现有技术和我们开发的视觉算法的扩展，用于识别图像和OCR中的文本区域，可以在威尔默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。 我们的原型的功能和适用范围必然是有限的。 与此同时，PI将致力于开发具有更大可扩展性和能力的下一代导盲机所必须解决的长期研究问题。 今年，威尔默和NFB的三名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，并被带到更大的患者身体（如威尔默以前的发展）。 需要解决的基本研究问题包括： 用于检测和校正受透视变形影响的平面和圆柱体上的文本的实时算法; 数字视频的OCR和纹理背景上文本的OCR; 以及用于来自视频流的文本块的稳定化和超分辨率的更鲁棒和有效的算法和系统。

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.