Polar Print has received funding from PTS to continue working on the project Image interpretation for visually impaired.
There are many situations in daily life where visually impaired persons would benefit from getting help interpreting images of their environment. This includes both pictures of papers and photos of the surrounding area. Some examples of situations are identifying cans and packaging, finding out expiration dates, finding out what a photo depicts or what is written on a handwritten note that an OCR program fails to read. Bus schedules and road signs are also interesting to read. It is also possible that the visually impaired user is lost and need help to find his/her way back. Another example is the possibility to know the color of the clothes you are going to wear.
Polar Print Försäljning AB has, during 2006, received funding from Hjälpmedelsinstitutet to develop a prototype for an image interpretation service for visually impaired. The prototype has been tested by a small group of users from the north of Sweden. The response from the test group was positive.
In short, the service lets the user take a photo with the camera in his/her cellphone and send it via mobile Internet to a kind of interpretation center and receives a description in textual form. The interpretation center consists mainly of voluntary sighted persons, for examples friends and family of the user, who understand what in the photo that should be described, but it should also be possible to use a hired interpreter if you wish to be anonymous.
The interpretors can be located anywhere, and can do the interpretation from a computer or another Internet enabled device.
For this to work it is required that the visually impaired user has a cellphone equipped with a so called screen reader. This lets the user listen to whatever is shown on the display by synthetic speech. Many visually impaired persons already have cellphones with screen readers today.
The service was initially developed for visually impaired users, but people with other disabilities may also benefit from the same system. By attaching a Braille display to the cellphone, the service can be used by deaf blind users. Persons with cognitive disabilities might also benefit from being helped to interpret their environment.
Phase 1 of the project (in Swedish)During this project, about 50 visually impaired and about 5 deaf blind users will test the prototype that was developed during the first phase of the project (that ended in the spring of 2006).
It is important to survey the target group's needs in image interpretation, and to compare interpretation via photos and live video. The most crucial faults in the prototype must be fixed before the test begins.