An Integrated Assistance Tool for Visual Impairment

Although vision restoration is slowly becoming a reality through the various advancements in medical research and technology, the applicability of most methods are fairly limited as they only work in a few eye conditions and cannot provide help for most visually impaired people. Intelligent assistive devices however, albeit without offering visual experience, have three distinct advantages: they can be used by anyone, they have a huge potential cost advantage, and they can be brought to market much faster. We present a portable assistive device that processes the visual image flow provided by a built-in camera, and provides interactive detection and recognition functions. Pattern detection is designed to be universal, building on structural embeddedness and morphologic saliency including the Gestalt principles. Shape recognition in turn is trained for typical patterns appearing in specific situations proposed by blind experts. Testing is carried out regularly on blind subjects using experimental prototypes