A lot of research is going to improve life for partially-sighted and blind people.The smartphone will allow to visualize the surroundings without making contact with anything in their environment.
Scientists plan to use colour and depth sensor technology inside new smartphones and tablets to enable object recognition. This smart device is being developed by specialists in computer vision and machine learning based at the University of Lincoln, UK.
The research is aimed at embeding a smart vision system in mobile devices to help people with sight problems navigate unfamiliar indoor environments. “This project will build on our previous research to create an interface that can be used to help people with visual impairments,” said Project lead Dr Nicola Bellotto, an expert on machine perception and human-centred robotics from Lincoln’s School of Computer Science.
The team plans to use colour and depth sensor technology inside new smartphones and tablets to enable 3D mapping and localisation, navigation and object recognition.The team will then develop the best interface to relay that to users – whether that is vibrations, sounds or the spoken word.
“We aim to create a system with ‘human-in-the-loop’ that provides good localization relevant to visually impaired users and, most importantly, that understands how people observe and recognize particular features of their environment,” said Bellotto.
As the user becomes more accustomed to the technology, the quicker and easier it would be to identify the environment.