Character extraction from the region pointed at with a fingertip for the visually handicapped

We have proposed a system that recognizes text characters from the region pointed at with a fingertip for the visually handicapped. For example, in a supermarket, the blind user can pick up and touch the goods. However, the user cannot read the characters printed on the surface of the object. He/she cannot exactly know what the object is. It is very inconvenient for him/her. The proposed system will help the user to recognize the characters on the object. The system detects the ring which the user wears on the index finger and calculates the position of the user´s fingertip of the index finger. Some acrylic infrared-reflective beads are arranged on the ring and it is easy to detect them from an infrared image. After fingertip detection, a region in which characters to be recognized is generated according to the position of the fingertip. The characters are extracted within the region using image processing. Thus, the redundant character recognition is avoided. The extracted characters are combined as a text and the text is read aloud by OCR software and free reading software for the user. Some experiments show the basic validity of the proposed method and system.