A video based interface to textual information for the visually impaired

Abstract

We describe the development of an interface to textual information for the visually impaired that uses video, image processing, optical-character-recognition (OCR) and text-to-speech (TTS). The video provides a sequence of low resolution images in which text must be detected, rectified and converted into high resolution rectangular blocks that are capable of being analyzed via off-the-shelf OCR. To achieve this, various problems related to feature detection, mosaicing, auto-focus, zoom, and systems integration were solved in the development of the system.