EyeRing Helps Visually Impaired Point, Press, and Hear Information
From: PhysOrg.com - 08/12/2012

MIT researchers have developed EyeRing, a wearable intuitive interface that
allows the visually impaired to point at an object to see or hear more
information about it. The new technology is made up of a ring, a smartphone,
and an earpiece. The user points the ring at an object, and clicks a button
to capture an image and send it to the smartphone for processing. Then an
application on the phone will speak the word or describe the item to the
user. The user needs to pair the finger-worn device with the mobile phone
application only once, and then a Bluetooth connection will be automatically
established when both are running, according to the researchers. The
smartphone application analyzes the image using the researchers' computer
vision engine. The type of analysis depends on the pre-set mode, such as
color, distance, or currency. "Upon analyzing the image data, the Android
application uses a Text to Speech module to read out the information though a
headset," according to the MIT researchers. 

Read the entire article and view a video (3:16) at:
http://phys.org/news/2012-08-eyering-visually-impaired.html

Links:
EyeRing
http://fluid.media.mit.edu/people/suranga/current/eyering.html

Suranga Nanayakkara
http://fluid.media.mit.edu/people/suranga/about/suranga.html

EyeRing: A Finger-worn Assistant
http://fluid.media.mit.edu/publications/EyeRing-CHI2012-WIP_V12_cameraReady.pdf

Related:
News articles tagged with visually impaired
http://phys.org/tags/visually+impaired/