title: Clearspeech: a display reader for the visually handicapped.
abstract: Many domestic appliances and much office equipment is controlled using a keypad and a small digital display. Programming such devices is problematical for the blind and visually handicapped. In this paper, we describe a device that may be used to read the displays on these devices. The device is designed to accept a description of the display being read, which specifies the types and locations of elements of the display. Images are captured using a handheld webcam. Images are processed to remove the distortions due to the camera orientation. The elements of the screen are interpreted and a suitable audio output is generated. In suitably illuminated scenes, the display data is interpreted correctly in approximately 90% of the cases investigated.
authors.affiliation: School of Informatics, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M60 1QD, UK. tim.morris@manchester.ac.uk
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Morris
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Blenkhorn
authors.forename: Luke
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Crossey
authors.forename: Quang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ngo
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ross
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Werner
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wong
mesh_terms: D003143:Communication Devices for People with Disabilities; D003626:Data Display; D001330:Electronic Data Processing / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation*