Blind Assistant is an attempt to realize a software that can help men and children that are blind or visual impaired. The software is designed to run not on complex and expensive hardware devices, but on simple and cheap devices as Sony Playstation Portable (PSP).

Blind Assistant uses Nanodesktop tecnology for windows environment, it is able to speak with the user using ndFLite, a porting of the speech synthesis engine originally developed by the Carnegie Mellon University and it is able to recognizes the name and the position of the people that are present in that moment in your room, using complex algorithms (as Intel EigenFaces, PentLand PCA or SIFT).

The face recognition tecnology is provided using ndOpenCV, a porting realized by the author of the program of the original Intel OpenCV libraries. Filippo Battaglia’s version of ndOpenCV improves the Intel code because the algorithms have been modified in way to use EMI (Enhanced Mathematical Interface), an API integrated in Nanodesktop system and written totally in assembly that is able to use Sony VFPU to improve the necessary computations.

Using EMI, we can obtain the necessary CPU power.

At the actual stage, Blind Assistant is able to recognizes the name and the position of a face, in a set of n different faces. In a second time, we’ll add other features as GPS support or collision avoidance.

The software supports the Sony GoCam webcam or the Eyeserver tecnology. It works on Sony PSP-FAT or Sony PSP-SLIM. The program is able to auto-update itself using wireless connections.

http://visilab.unime.it/~filippo/BlindAssistant/BlindAssistant.htm