Handsight: Mobile Services for Low Vision

Handsight：低视力移动服务

• 批准号: 8133823
• 负责人: Peter Winthrop Hallinan
• 金额: $ 77.65万
• 依托单位: BLINDSIGHT CORPORATION
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-04-01 至 2013-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8133823
• 关键词: Activities of Daily Living; Address; Adoption; Architecture; Area; Car Phone; Cellular Phone; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.); Computer Vision Systems; Computer software; Data; Databases; Dependence; Destinations; Detection; Devices; Education; Eye; Feedback; Fees; Focus Groups; Friends; Funding; Future; Grant; Health; Human; Individual; Institutes; Internet; Letters; Licensing; Location; Maps; Medicine; Mission; Parents; Persons; Phase; Plug-in; Principal Investigator; Process; Provider; Reading; Research; Research Design; Research Infrastructure; Research Institute; Research Methodology; Research Support; Services; Simulate; Small Business Innovation Research Grant; Social Interaction; Special Equipment; System; Target Populations; Technology; Telephone; Text; Touch sensation; Training; Travel; United States National Institutes of Health; Update; Vision; Vision Disorders; Visual impairment; Voice; Work; blind; computer center; cost; digital; experience; falls; open source; programs; public health relevance; response; success; tool; usability; vibration; voice recognition; web services

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Handsight is a mobile phone service that offers an affordable, extensible set of automated sight-assistant functions to millions of blind and low-vision persons at $30/month atop standard voice and data fees. To the user, Handsight is simply a mobile phone application, requiring no special equipment or updating. By aiming a mobile telephone<s camera in roughly the right direction and pressing just one button, a Handsight user can snap a picture, send it to the Handsight computer center along with location data, and have a response within seconds. Moving the key computation and data from the handset to web servers cut cost, eases technology upgrades, and enables numerous data and technology partnerships needed to rapidly solve a broad spectrum of tasks. To allow widespread adoption Handsight uses voice, keypad, and vibration for user interaction; and for extensibility it is built on open-source software both on the handset and on the web application infrastructure. The range of tasks encountered by the blind and low-vision requires an array of components to solve: some are more heavily text-oriented and involve no location/navigational feedback (distinguishing and identifying different medicines; finding the phone bill in a stack of letters); some are more specifically navigational (locating the exact store entrance, finding the bus stop); yet others are informational (finding out when the next bus is due). Since we aim to provide a broadly useful tool, Handsight has to accommodate the whole range of task types. We are therefore proposing to build an architecture that integrates a set of components addressing the various task types, from text-detection and recognition software to navigational databases. Handsight<s application programming interface (API) will enable third parties to add capabilities to solve new tasks. As a web service, Handsight can evolve as computer vision and navigation technologies advance without requiring users to upgrade handsets or buy new versions of software. Phase I of this project was funded by the Dept. of Education / NIDRR and completed successfully between 10/01/2007 and 04/01/2008 under grant # H133S070044. It demonstrated not just the viability of the proposed project but also likely demand for such a service. (The NIDRR<s immutable deadlines precluded us from pursuing a Phase II with that agency.) Phase II consists in building the cell phone application and remote processing infrastructure with APIs to enable plug-in of the basic and future features. Subcontractor Smith-Kettlewell Institute for Eye Research will assure usability by blind and low-vision users; data partner NAVTEQ will provide a range of leading-edge digital map data. Blindsight already owns fast, accurate text detection and recognition software, and has experience in building scalable web services. A minimum set of features that make for a system with widespread appeal will be developed and/or licensed, and integrated into the service. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The proposed Handsight service falls squarely in the NEI mission to support research and programs with respect to visual disorders and the special health problems and requirements of the blind. It aims to provide a maximum of mobility and independence to the blind and low-vision using today<s mobile phone infrastructure via automated web services, using a minimum of specialized hardware and training. The 3 million-plus blind and low-vision persons in the U.S. encounter barriers to such activities of daily living as travel, navigation, and shopping, reading and social interactions. The difficulty of recognizing when a friend is nearby, of finding a product in a grocery store, of making change or locating a destination building often require sighted friends or assistants to make these tasks possible. This is expensive, difficult to arrange, and increases dependence. The Handsight system will simplify or make possible to many a new set of tasks previously requiring human assistance or special-purpose devices.

描述（由申请人提供）：Handsight 是一项移动电话服务，为数百万盲人和低视力人士提供一套经济实惠、可扩展的自动视力辅助功能，每月收费 30 美元，另加标准语音和数据费用。对于用户来说，Handsight 只是一个手机应用程序，不需要特殊设备或更新。通过将移动电话的摄像头对准大致正确的方向并按下一个按钮，Handsight 用户就可以拍摄一张照片，将其与位置数据一起发送到 Handsight 计算机中心，并在几秒钟内得到响应。将关键计算和数据从手机转移到网络服务器可以降低成本，简化技术升级，并实现快速解决广泛任务所需的大量数据和技术合作伙伴关系。为了实现广泛采用，Handsight 使用语音、键盘和振动进行用户交互；为了实现可扩展性，它构建在手机和网络应用基础设施上的开源软件之上。盲人和低视力人士遇到的一系列任务需要一系列组件来解决：有些任务更注重文本导向，不涉及位置/导航反馈（区分和识别不同的药物；在一堆信件中查找电话账单） ）；有些是更具体的导航（找到确切的商店入口，找到公交车站）；还有一些是信息性的（了解下一趟巴士的预计时间）。由于我们的目标是提供一个广泛有用的工具，Handsight 必须适应所有任务类型。因此，我们建议构建一个架构，集成一组解决各种任务类型的组件，从文本检测和识别软件到导航数据库。 Handsight 的应用程序编程接口 (API) 将使第三方能够添加功能来解决新任务。作为一项网络服务，Handsight 可以随着计算机视觉和导航技术的进步而发展，而无需用户升级手机或购买新版本的软件。该项目的第一阶段由教育部/NIDRR 资助，并于 2007 年 1 月 10 日至 2008 年 1 月 4 日期间成功完成，拨款编号为 H133S070044。它不仅证明了拟议项目的可行性，而且还证明了对此类服务的可能需求。 （NIDRR 不可改变的最后期限使我们无法与该机构进行第二阶段。）第二阶段包括使用 API 构建手机应用程序和远程处理基础设施，以实现基本功能和未来功能的插件。分包商史密斯-凯特尔韦尔眼科研究所将确保盲人和低视力用户的可用性；数据合作伙伴 NAVTEQ 将提供一系列领先的数字地图数据。 Blindsight 已经拥有快速、准确的文本检测和识别软件，并且在构建可扩展的 Web 服务方面拥有丰富的经验。将开发和/或许可并集成到服务中，从而形成具有广泛吸引力的系统的最小功能集。 公共健康相关性：拟议的 Handsight 服务完全符合 NEI 的使命，即支持有关视觉障碍以及盲人的特殊健康问题和要求的研究和计划。它的目标是使用当今的移动电话基础设施，通过自动化网络服务，使用最少的专业硬件和培训，为盲人和低视力人士提供最大的移动性和独立性。美国有超过 300 万盲人和低视力人士在旅行、导航、购物、阅读和社交等日常生活活动中遇到障碍。识别朋友何时在附近、在杂货店寻找产品、找零或定位目的地建筑物等困难通常需要视力正常的朋友或助手来完成这些任务。这是昂贵的、难以安排的并且增加了依赖性。 Handsight 系统将简化或使许多以前需要人工协助或专用设备的新任务成为可能。