Image-based interactive device for effective communication

Abstract

The main objective of IBIDEM is to develop a video phone useful for speech reading by hearing-impaired people based on a new generation of the space-variant sensor and using standard telephone lines. The space variant nature of the sensor will allow it to have high resolution in the area of interest, lips or fingers, while still maintaining a wide field of view in order to perceive, for example, the facial expression of the interlocutor, but reducing drastically the amount of data to be sent on the line. A second objective if IBIDEM is the use of the same equipment for remote monitoring of health status. The system can be used for obtaining information about the status of a client in the form of images and could be extended to include various physiological parameters like heart rate, blood pressure, etc. The IBIDEM project is constructing a video phone using a camera with the retina-like sensor, a motorized system for moving the point of view of the camera as well as a display for the transmitted images. This video phone will be a high- quality, low-cost aid for the hearing impaired as well as being useful for remote monitoring.