Multimodal Assistive Technologies Prototype for the Disabled in Oman

Abstract

Disability restricts both the mental and physical freedom of a person and thus has an overall debilitating effect on the human psyche. It is one of the main stumbling blocks in the realization of the full potential of any human being. In order to mitigate such limitations, various technologies have been utilized to assist a disabled person to lead a life of fulfillment and comfort. We investigate and review the various state-of-the-art technologies that are currently in vogue as well as in the research stage. The focus of this work is on developing an integrated system that is available on a hand-held digital device. The control panel of this system allows for seamless interactions with diverse technologies thus providing a unified platform for the disabled for most of their daily needs. This integrated system will be powered by artificial intelligence especially in the fields of computer vision, speech recognition, natural language interaction (NLI), and image description using text or voice captioning.