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A Lightweight Computer Vision-based Electronic Travel Aid. Andrew B. Raij ( raij@cs.unc.edu ) Enabling Tech Project Status Report 3/6/2003. Department of Computer Science, UNC-Chapel Hill. High-Level (Long Term?) Goal.
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A Lightweight Computer Vision-based Electronic Travel Aid Andrew B. Raij (raij@cs.unc.edu) Enabling Tech Project Status Report 3/6/2003 Department of Computer Science, UNC-Chapel Hill
High-Level (Long Term?) Goal • Inexpensive, lightweight device that assists with orientation and mobility (O&M) • Gathers spatial data from the environment with one or more cameras and presents it to a blind user in a useful form
Big Questions (1) • Why Cameras? • NxM 2D grid of intensity / color data • Find edges, other features • Lots more information than ultrasound, infrared lasers, etc • Wide field of view (particularly when using several cameras) • Can extract long-range depth from the world (as opposed to 3-6 ft. of a cane) • No need to scan the world like a cane • Cameras are getting cheaper and cheaper
Big Questions (2) • What data to gather? • Intensity / Color • Depth * • Cane is too short • Cane does not help much for high objects • Patterns (brick, tile, marble, etc?) • Faces • Objects
Big Questions (3) • How to transform visual data to useful information? • Auditory • Don’t want to affect ability to listen to the world • Tactile • Other?
Big Questions (4) • How to do it fast on a small, lightweight device? • Hardware Requirements • Floating point ? • Low heat, power • Inexpensive • Cameras and Camera Interface (Firewire? USB?) • Possibilities • PDA – no floating point, useless video display • Mini PC
This Semester • Do a lot of Learning / Reading • Perception of the world by the blind • Existing O&M “Devices” • Existing O&M work using computer vision • Experiment with Multiple View Geometry concepts • Two-View Geometry • Mirror Stereo • Look into inexpensive, lightweight hardware platforms • Begin implementation