Image edges locator dedicated to visually impaired people — An experimental application for mobile devices

摘要

Mobile smart devices are standard equipment of an average person. While being designed to be used by a fully fit person, they can be helpful for impaired ones, even those who due to blindness are considered unable to operate a touchscreen. In this paper we present an experimental “Image edges locator” application, developed for mobile devices with Android OS. The idea was “if you can't see it, try to touch it and imagine how it could look”. There are a lot of things that blind people could touch without the aid of application - because those things are within arm's reach. But also there are many which are too high, too wide, too far, to be touched or just don't have features to be distinguished by touch. We imagine that we take a photo of such an object, and next we make it touchable - by vibrating the device when the user moves his finger through the edges acquired from that object image, thus providing the sensation of “feeling” its edges.