[infoshare] Printed Photos the Blind Can 'See'
- From: "Luis Guerra" <screenreader@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <"Undisclosed-Recipient:;"@freelists.org>
- Date: Sun, 20 Feb 2011 15:41:36 -0500
Printed Photos the Blind Can 'See'
By ALYSSA DANIGELIS
2/20/2011, 7:21 AM EST
PHOTO Printed Photos the Blind Can 'See'
A new system prints portrait photos that blind people can feel and
recognize.
Software reads online content aloud and printers generate Braille text, but
there hasn't been a fast and easy way to create recognizable images for the
blind. Now, computer scientists in Arizona are generating social networking
profile pictures the blind can "see."
"The face image -- that's very important for people in their social life,
emotional life," said Baoxin Li, an associate professor of computer science
at
Arizona State University who is leading the software work.
Li said the idea was inspired by a blind ASU researcher who wished she could
access more graphical information. Making all digital graphics accessible to
the blind would have been an overwhelming challenge, so Li and his
colleagues focused on profile pictures. They had to find the right balance
of information
so the person would be recognizable.
"We convert the photo in such a way so the major facial landmarks are nicely
kept -- that's very important because we can't render all the features into
tactile form," Li said. "That would be too disorienting."
Instead, an algorithm pares down crucial facial information without
oversimplifying it. Their software allows a blind user to take a photo of a
face, put
it into a computer application, and automatically generate a new printable
image. The image comes out of a special tactile printer with raised lines
along
the facial features.
"At the moment it's within one minute or so, but we can further optimize the
software to do it faster," Li said.
Other technology exists for creating tactile images, Li said, but it's
designed to help sighted professionals with the time-consuming process of
making
intricate images for the blind. The ASU software is stable to the point
where the scientists are talking with software producers about bringing it
to market.
Beyond profile images, the scientists would like to create software that can
generate tactile images from online mapping sites.
John Gardner is a former Oregon State University physics professor who lost
his vision in 1988. Frustrated by a lack of access to information, he
founded
the assistive technology company ViewPlus Technologies in Corvallis, Ore.
ViewPlus developed the tactile printer that Li uses, he said.
"But we never had the software to make a nose feel like a nose and an eye
feel like an eye," Gardner said. "It's a tour de force that he can analyze a
face
and make it feel like a face." He added that he'd like Li's software to
render the Mona Lisa.
At the demonstration this week in California, attendees were invited to have
their photos taken and receive tactile versions. Some sighted visitors
called
the printouts works of art, Li said. "They asked me to put my signature on
their copies."
http://news.discovery.com/tech/blind-portrait-photos-tactile-tech-110216.html
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