A Cell Phone-Based Street Intersection Analyzer for Visually Impared Pedestrians

描述（由申请人提供）：城市十字路口是盲人旅行中最危险的部分。它们变得越来越复杂，使得使用传统的盲定向和移动技术安全穿越变得更加困难。为了缓解这个问题，我们建议开发和评估一个基于手机的系统来分析街道交叉口的图像，由一个盲人或视障人士使用标准的相机手机，提供实时反馈。利用我们最近在计算机视觉算法方面的工作，帮助盲人找到人行横道和街道交叉口的其他重要特征，以及我们正在进行的关于室内寻路和阅读数字电器显示器算法的手机实现的工作，我们将改进这些算法并在手机上实现它们。由算法提取的信息将通过合成语音、音频音调和/或触觉反馈（使用手机的内置振动器）的组合传达给用户。人为因素研究将有助于确定如何配置系统及其用户控件，以实现最大的有效性和易用性，并对整个系统进行评估。街道交叉口分析软件将免费提供，供下载到任何配备摄像头的手机，使用广泛的塞班操作系统（如流行的诺基亚手机系列）。手机将不需要任何硬件修改或附加组件来运行此软件。最终，用户将能够免费下载一整套这样的算法到他或她可能已经携带的手机上，而不必为每个功能携带单独的设备。相关性：视力正常的人每天都能安全、自信地沿着人行道行走和穿越人行横道，但大约有1000万患有严重视力障碍的美国人和100万法定盲人在这项任务中面临严重困难。拟议的研究将产生一个高度无障碍的系统（对用户来说成本为零或最低），以增强现有的寻路技术，这可以大大改善盲人和视障者的独立旅行。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Urban intersections are the most dangerous parts of a blind person's travel. They are becoming increasingly complex, making safe crossing using conventional blind orientation and mobility techniques ever more difficult. To alleviate this problem, we propose to develop and evaluate a cell phone-based system to analyze images of street intersections, taken by a blind or visually impaired person using a standard camera cell phone, to provide real-time feedback. Drawing on our recent work on computer vision algorithms that help a blind person find crosswalks and other important features in a street intersection, as well as our ongoing work on cell phone implementations of algorithms for indoor wayfinding and for reading digital appliance displays, we will refine these algorithms and implement them on a cell phone. The information extracted by the algorithms will be communicated to the user with a combination of synthesized speech, audio tones and/or tactile feedback (using the cell phone's built-in vibrator). Human factors studies will help determine how to configure the system and its user controls for maximum effectiveness and ease of use, and provide an evaluation of the overall system. The street intersection analysis software will be made freely available for download into any camera-equipped cell phone that uses the widespread Symbian operating system (such as the popular Nokia cell phone series). The cell phone will not need any hardware modifications or add-ons to run this software. Ultimately a user will be able to download an entire suite of such algorithms for free onto the cell phone he or she is already likely to be carrying, without having to carry a separate piece of equipment for each function. Relevance: The ability to walk safely and confidently along sidewalks and traverse crosswalks is taken for granted every day by the sighted, but approximately 10 million Americans with significant vision impairments and a million who are legally blind face severe difficulties in this task. The proposed research would result in a highly accessible system (with zero or minimal cost to users) to augment existing wayfinding techniques, which could dramatically improve independent travel for blind and visually impaired persons.