An Economical Sonification Prototype to Assist the Blind
From: Medical Design Technology - 01/13/2014

Researchers at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) have developed an
assistive technology system that works by sounds which contributes to the
autonomy of persons with visual impairments.

The assistive technology, conceived as a sound guide that gives information
as to the user’s environment, precisely aims to make this ingenious
complement to the classic cane or guide dog more economical.

The proposed system will consist of a stereo vision processor that measures
the difference of images captured by two cameras that are placed slightly
apart and calculates the distance to each point in the scene. Then, it will
transmit the information to the user by means of a sound code that gives
information regarding the position and distance to the different obstacles.
“To represent height, the synthesizer will emit up to eight different tones,”
its creators explained. In addition, the sounds will be laterally located, so
that something on the left sounds louder on that side, and vice versa.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.mdtmag.com/news/2014/01/economical-sonification-prototype-assist-blind