Mobile Computing, Applications, and Services. 5th International Conference, MobiCASE 2013, Paris, France, November 7-8, 2013, Revised Selected Papers

Research Article

Geometric Layout Analysis in a Wearable Reading Device for the Blind and Visually Impaired

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  • @INPROCEEDINGS{10.1007/978-3-319-05452-0_7,
        author={Roman Guilbourd and Raul Rojas},
        title={Geometric Layout Analysis in a Wearable Reading Device for the Blind and Visually Impaired},
        proceedings={Mobile Computing, Applications, and Services. 5th International Conference, MobiCASE 2013, Paris, France, November 7-8, 2013, Revised Selected Papers},
        proceedings_a={MOBICASE},
        year={2014},
        month={6},
        keywords={Wearable device healthcare assistance OCR document processing},
        doi={10.1007/978-3-319-05452-0_7}
    }
    
  • Roman Guilbourd
    Raul Rojas
    Year: 2014
    Geometric Layout Analysis in a Wearable Reading Device for the Blind and Visually Impaired
    MOBICASE
    Springer
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-05452-0_7
Roman Guilbourd1,*, Raul Rojas1,*
  • 1: Free University Berlin
*Contact email: guilbour@mi.fu-berlin.de, rojas@mi.fu-berlin.de

Abstract

Blind and visually impaired people can use a mobile device for accessing printed information, which is ubiquitous in everyday life. Thus, there is a need for a mobile easy-to-use reading device, capable of dealing with the complexity of the outdoor environment. In this paper a wearable camera based solution is presented, aiming at improving the performance of existing systems through the use of an integrated approach for the document processing. This particular publication covers the segmentation phase of the processing chain as well as geometric analysis of the layout. Using a highly efficient approach we were able to overcome the limitations of a mobile computing environment without compromising on the robustness of the result. In order to demonstrate the advantages of the presented algorithm for the specific field of application we compare its output to the results obtained by a state-of-the art commercial solution.