Stereo camera based wearable reading device

The ability to access textual information is crucial for visually impaired people in terms of achieving greater independence in their everyday life. Thus, there is a need for a mobile easy-to-use reading device, capable of dealing with the complexity of the outdoor environment. In this paper a wearable camera-based solution is presented, aiming at improving the performance of existing systems through the use of stereo vision. Specific aspects of the stereo matching problem in document images are discussed and an approach for its integration into the document processing procedure is introduced. We conclude with the presentation of experimental results from a prototype system, which demonstrate the practical benefits of the presented approach.