The Seeing-Eye Computer

from the poor-dogs,-out-of-work dept

Tue, Mar 30th 2004 10:02am — Mike Masnick

Well, now it looks like even seeing-eye dogs are being put out of work by automation. Some researchers have been working on a "seeing-eye" computer to help guide the blind. The idea is to provide a pair of glasses with a camera and sensors to let the user know what's happening around them - and it sounds fairly detailed. For example, it can say what the room is like, where the nearest exits are, how quickly other people are moving around them, and plenty of other info. The system can either continuously feed the user verbal info about what's happening, or they can just have it respond to specific questions. It even has character recognition technology that it can read printed text (such as street signs, menus or even books) and speak the text to the user of the system. They say their next goal is to have it be able to read handwriting as well. They're also experimenting with facial recognition, so that the system can tell the user who's approaching them, or who they're talking to. To be honest, many of the features sound like they could be useful to those of us who still see pretty well.

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4 Comments

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Midas, 30 Mar 2004 @ 10:02am

Very good article....makes me happy to see things like this going on.
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dorpus, 30 Mar 2004 @ 4:57pm

Localization Packs
What about using equipment like that in Japan, where signs that say "B2" sometimes mean "Basement Level 2", but other times mean "go down two levels"?
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Jerry Lyles, 31 Mar 2004 @ 9:53am

Seeing Eye Computer
That is a start, but there is no computer yet that is as intelligent as a gnat, let alone a dog!
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Sam, 31 Mar 2004 @ 11:15am

Seeing eye dog
But could a seeing eye computer tell you who the Sexiest CEO was?
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