Applications of Computer Vision for the Blind and Visually Impaired
Everyday tasks such as traveling, finding directions and reading signs and other documents are very difficult for people with blindness or low vision. Computer vision has the potential to give this population access to some of the same visual information available to normally sighted persons for performing these tasks.The lab is involved in several projects exploring these types of computer vision applications.
1.) Analyzing traffic intersections (i.e. finding a nearby crosswalk to provide proper orientation)
Powerpoint presentation: pdf
Relevant publication: pdf
2.) Providing terrain information for blind wheelchair users (using stereo cameras to construct a 3-D map to find curbs, ramps and obstacles)
Powerpoint presentation: pdf
Relevant publication: pdf
3.) Finding and reading text in cluttered environments (such as street signs)
Powerpoint presentation: pdf
Relevant publications: pdf, pdf, pdf
4.) Finding and reading specially designed signs using off-the-shelf camera cell phones
Powerpoint presentation: pdf
Relevant publications: pdf, pdf
Upcoming workshop (Sept. 18, 2007): Computer Vision Applications for the Visually Impaired
See also an earlier version of this workshop that was held in June 2005 as part of CVPR 05.
Last updated Aug. 2007.