A prototype helping device for the visually impaired using an optical to mechanical transducer

Computer hardware is becoming ubiquitous, from kitchen appliances to research machines to cell phones. This availability of computing capable circuits has driven its cost down, thus making several applications possible on commercial hardware. Computer vision is one of such tasks, it is now possible to create computer based helping devices for the visually impaired. In recent years there has been an explotion of computer vision hardware for many applications, 3D scanners in particular which are used to interact with regular operative systems or games. This paper presents an apparatus which uses one of such devices (Kinect) developed by Microsoft that senses the world in 3D. This information is then processed with a low-power computer called the BeagleBone whose output will be sent to the user via mechanical pulses.