Abstract

... The objective is to develop "digital" glasses which will increase the contrast and edge detection of the visually impaired and thus help them recognise different objects easier.
Electronics suppliers (microelectronics), medical aid manufacturers and distributors and suppliers of lenses are awaited.

Description

Today 5% of the population is visually impaired. These people have only between 1% and 33% of the visual acuity of the ones with healthy eyesight. In case the visual capability is lower than 10% they need special equipment such as binoculars-glasses or loupes to read texts, watch television and work with computers. In some cases like media opacity or diabetic retinopathy the persons can see pictures only out of focus and this vision cannot be improved with glasses either. A significant percentage of the visually impaired have serious problems with interpreting visual information of their surroundings due to reduced peak contrast sensitivity and blurred vision which severely affects an individual's ability to perform activities of daily living not to speak of considerable economic impact visual impairments have on countries.

The DigiGlasses project aims to help this group of visually impaired people by providing them with a glasseslike digital tool to convert the real view of the environment to a sharper, more focused picture by increasing contrast and using edge detection.

The plan is to develop a pair of digital "glasses" working with a camera chip, a signal processing unit and a small LCD or LED screen. The captured picture will be analyzed and processed based on the necessary corrections. One of the planned corrections is contrast increasing and edge detection which will help the visually impaired recognize the different objects in their surroundings. The signal processing can be completed with motion detection as well for them to recognize moving objects like cars or bicycles; and colour recognition to emphasize red and green colours.

Technical Specifications / Specific technical requirements:
Call title: Research for the benefit of SMEs
Call identifier: FP7-SME-2010
Probable publication: July 2010
Required contribution: 900 000 ¬
Percentage of EU funding: 50%-100% 
 

Requested Cooperation:

- Joint further development

- Type of partner sought: SME

- Specific area of activity of the partner:
1. Electronics supplier (microelectronics).
2. Medical aid manufacturer.
3. Supplier of lenses.
4. Medical aid distributor.

- Task to be performed:
1) Provide technical consultation/assessment.
2) Help the dissemination and exploitation of project results.
3) Assist in field testing.