This project makes use of artificial vision, specifically of different image processingtechniques in order to build a guidance aid for visually impaired people.While several navigation systems based on ultra-sound sensors have been developed,it is not the case of real time navigation systems based on edge detectiontechniques. Therefore the current project builds a prototype based on artificialvision, which is easily wearable. It is light and little cumbersome.The main assumption of this guidance system is that there are many straightpaths in different real world scenarios. These straight paths have parallel edges,which when captured as an image seem to converge to a single point called vanishingpoint. In the current project the vanishing point is calculated as a thecrossing point between the two straight lines defining the path and a decision istaken based on the position of this point. This control algorithm has been developedusing LabVIEW Real-Time software and has been deployed afterwards ina Real-Time target.The prototype notifies (via an audio record) the visually impaired personabout his deviation from the straight path. It also notifies if the person is completelyout of the way with an alarm sound. This guidance system consists of anelectronic device (which contains a real time processor along with an FPGA), awebcam, a battery and some earphones. In this project the FPGA is used forparallel playback of audio speech while vision processes take place in the Real-Time processor.
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