Face Recognition Tool for the Blind

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): It is difficult for people who are blind or have low vision to recognize people in a variety of social interactions. Sole reliance on voice recognition may be difficult in some circumstances, and impossible in other circumstances, e.g., people within a group who do not speak. The inability to identify people during group meetings is a disadvantage for blind people in many professional and educational situations. This project proposes to develop a wearable system to aid blind and low vision users in the aforementioned types of social interactions. Using face recognition technology, the system will identify classmates and colleagues by discretely announcing their names via a wireless earpiece or Braille display. The proposed system will support many different deployment models to suit a wide range of infrastructure support and privacy desires. In the simplest deployment model, the user will enroll the faces of willing colleagues using a smartphone to take pictures. A second alternative will allow colleagues to self-enroll by emailing self-portraits with their name in the subject line. More advanced deployment methodologies will access existing face image databases. The societal benefit of the proposed device is that, if successful, it will improve the access, integration, and independence of the blind or severely visually impaired individuals in workplace or educational settings. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: It is difficult for people, who are blind or have low vision, to recognize people in a variety of social interactions. Multipurpose tools based on face recognition technology will improve the access, integration, and independence of the blind or severely visually impaired individuals in workplace or educational settings.