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

描述(申请人提供)：该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器和类似形式的非文件视觉信息。在使用微波炉和DVD播放机等日常家用电器以及进行许多日常活动(如数纸币)时，这种能力越来越必要。目前，诸如光学字符识别(OCR)之类的传统文本阅读系统不提供对该信息的访问，光学字符识别(OCR)旨在用于阅读打印文档。我们建议的软件运行在标准的现成相机手机上，使用计算机视觉算法分析用户拍摄的图像，检测并阅读每张图像中的文本，然后使用合成语音朗读。初步可行性研究表明，目前的手机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家电显示器、产品或用户定义的条形码以及纸币面额。最终，这些功能将与在单独资金下开发的其他功能相结合，例如阅读广泛的印刷文本(包括标志)、识别物体、分析照片和图形等，所有这些功能都可以免费或低成本下载，供任何手机用户下载。我们的具体目标是(1)收集由盲人和视障人士拍摄的各种LED/LCD设备显示器、条形码和美国纸币的真实图像数据库；(2)开发处理图像并提取所需信息的算法；(3)在照相手机上实施算法；以及(4)进行用户测试，以建立设计参数和优化人机界面。与公共健康相关：对于盲人和视障人士来说，就业、经济自给自足和独立的最严重障碍之一是在家庭、工作场所、学校或大学中不能获得越来越多的装有可视LED/LCD显示器的设备和电器，以及到目前为止康复技术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(对用户零成本或最低成本)，为大约1000万严重视力障碍或失明的美国人提供更多获取这种显示器和非文件文本信息的机会。

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.