Title :
Device to Assist the Visually Impaired in Reading Printed or Scanned Documents
Author :
Coutinho, L.R.R. ; Girao, A.M. ; Frota, J.B.B. ; Silva, E.T.
Author_Institution :
Univ. Estadual do Ceara, Fortaleza, Brazil
Abstract :
Individuals with visual impairment have their ability to access information limited by the lack of mass literature in Braille. This paper presents an embedded application to aid the visually impaired that allows reading and writing printed and/or digitized documents. The solution, designated PORTÁCTIL, is a device composed of five modules: (1) electromechanical Braille cells, (2) hand motion sensor, (3) processing unit, (4) wireless communication and (5) power supply. The text, locally stored or received by wireless communication, is translated to Braille and displayed following the movement of the hand of the reader. Thus, reading occurs in the same way as in books written in Braille. The device is powered by rechargeable batteries and is capable of receiving texts from smartphones and tablets through Bluetooth. Some prototypes were built and tested by several visually impaired users. The adaptation was very good as well as the acceptance. Properties such as weight / volume, energy consumption and performance were evaluated and are given in the full text.
Keywords :
Bluetooth; document handling; handicapped aids; mobile communication; notebook computers; smart phones; Bluetooth; Braille; PORTÁCTIL; digitized documents; electromechanical Braille cells; hand motion sensor; mass literature; power supply; printed document reading; processing unit; rechargeable batteries; scanned document reading; smartphones; tablets; visually impaired assistance; wireless communication; Bluetooth; Hardware; Mice; Smart phones; Software; Visualization; Wireless communication; Acessibilidade; Bluetooth; Braille; Portáctil; plicações embarcadas;
Conference_Titel :
Computing System Engineering (SBESC), 2012 Brazilian Symposium on
Conference_Location :
Natal
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4673-5747-0
DOI :
10.1109/SBESC.2012.14