Penn State Senior's Digital Photos May Aid Blind
From: Valley News Dispatch - 01/10/2005
From: Larry Seben

Visually handicapped people might eventually be able to perceive digital
photos through a process chiefly developed by Penn State electrical
engineering senior Jason Donnell, whose work stemmed from an assignment he
received as a participant in the Milwaukee School of Engineering's (MSOE)
Research Experience for Undergraduates program. Donnell was challenged to
devise a way to raise a 2D photo into a 3D piece that could be "read" by
blind people using their fingers. The process involved a rapid prototyping
system that constructs 3D products using computer-aided design programs.
Donnell says that MSOE computer science major and fellow research program
participant Josh Mueller pointed him toward a partially developed but buggy
program authored by a Carnegie Mellon professor that "covered about two
thirds of what I needed." Donnell himself created the processing component,
and the program was used to generate three samples. Results were promising
but more development was needed; Donnell thought a battery-powered embedded
circuit would improve the system by allowing the picture to communicate with
the reader, but the MSOE program ended before the Penn State senior could go
forward on this concept. Donnell reports that MSOE is attempting to obtain a
development grant from the National Health Foundation to further develop his
program, and the school has requested that he court the National Institute of
Health in Virginia for additional funding. 

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http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/search/s_291602.html

Links:
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/newssummary/s_291602.html
http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/j/r/jrd270/Newspaper.htm