A Non-Document Text and Display Reader for Visually Impaired Persons

描述（由申请人提供）：本项目的目标是开发一种基于标准照相手机的计算机视觉系统，使盲人和视障人士能够阅读电器显示屏和类似形式的非文档视觉信息。这种能力对于使用微波炉和DVD播放器等日常电器以及进行许多日常活动（如数纸币）越来越必要。传统的文本阅读系统，例如光学字符识别（OCR），目前不能提供对该信息的访问，其旨在用于阅读打印文档。我们提出的软件运行在一个标准的，现成的相机手机上，并使用计算机视觉算法来分析用户拍摄的图像，检测和阅读每个图像中的文本，然后使用合成语音大声朗读。初步可行性研究表明，目前的蜂窝电话很容易超过这些任务所需的最低处理能力。最初，该软件将读出三类符号：LED/LCD电器显示器，产品或用户定义的条形码，以及纸币面额。最终，这些功能将与其他正在单独资助下开发的能力相结合，例如阅读各种印刷文本（包括标志），识别物体，分析照片和图形等，所有这些都可以作为免费或低成本的软件下载给任何手机用户。我们的具体目标是（1）收集盲人和视障人士拍摄的各种LED/LCD电器显示器、条形码和美国纸币的真实的图像数据库;（2）开发算法来处理图像并提取所需信息;（3）在照相手机上实现算法;（4）进行用户测试以建立设计参数并优化人机界面。公共卫生相关性：对于盲人和视力受损者而言，就业、经济自给自足和独立的最严重障碍之一是无法充分获得家庭、工作场所、学校或大学中日益增多的各种装置和器具，这些装置和器具包括可视LED/LCD显示器，以及康复技术迄今尚未解决的其他类型的文本和符号信息。拟议的研究将产生一个辅助技术系统（对用户的成本为零或最小），为大约1000万有严重视力障碍或失明的美国人提供更多的访问这种显示和非文档文本信息的机会。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this project is to develop a computer vision system based on standard camera cell phones to give blind and visually impaired persons the ability to read appliance displays and similar forms of non-document visual information. This ability is increasingly necessary to use everyday appliances such as microwave ovens and DVD players, and to perform many daily activities such as counting paper money. No access to this information is currently afforded by conventional text reading systems such as optical character recognition (OCR), which is intended for reading printed documents. Our proposed software runs on a standard, off-the- shelf camera phone and uses computer vision algorithms to analyze images taken by the user, to detect and read the text within each image, and to then read it aloud using synthesized speech. Preliminary feasibility studies indicate that current cellular phones easily exceed the minimum processing power required for these tasks. Initially, the software will read out three categories of symbols: LED/LCD appliance displays, product or user-defined barcodes, and denominations of paper money. Ultimately these functions will be integrated with other capabilities being developed under separate funding, such as reading a broad range of printed text (including signs), recognizing objects, and analyzing photographs and graphics, etc., all available as free or low-cost software downloads for any cell phone user. Our specific goals are to (1) gather a database of real images taken by blind and visually impaired persons of a variety of LED/LCD appliance displays, barcodes and US paper currency; (2) develop algorithms to process the images and extract the desired information; (3) implement the algorithms on a camera phone; and (4) conduct user testing to establish design parameters and optimize the human interface. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: For blind and visually impaired persons, one of the most serious barriers to employment, economic self sufficiency and independence is insufficient access to the ever-increasing variety of devices and appliances in the home, workplace, school or university that incorporate visual LED/LCD displays, and to other types of text and symbolic information hitherto unaddressed by rehabilitation technology. The proposed research would result in an assistive technology system (with zero or minimal cost to users) to provide increased access to such display and non- document text information for the approximately 10 million Americans with significant vision impairments or blindness.