An automatic text recognition tool in signage for the visually impaired

Mohd Shahadan, Amin Syatir and Mohd Ramli, Huda Adibah and Midi, Nur Shahida and Saidin, Norazlina (2024) An automatic text recognition tool in signage for the visually impaired. In: 9th International Conference on Mechatronics Engineering (ICOM 2024), 13th - 14th August 2024, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

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Abstract

Text comprehension poses a significant challenge for visually impaired individuals, as they lack visual capabilities. Moreover, visually impaired individuals often encounter crucial text signage that requires immediate attention, such as warnings for hazardous areas, open holes, wet floors, or restricted access zones, thereby jeopardizing their safety. While existing text recognition tools aid in perceiving text, they frequently rely on physical actions like button presses or camera shaking, lacking automatic functionality, and thereby limiting their usefulness. This proof of-concept paper presents an automatic text recognition tool designed to enhance accessibility to crucial signage information for visually impaired individuals. The tool integrates real-time object recognition, text recognition, and text-to-speech conversion. It consists of a shoulder-mounted web camera, earphones for audio output, and a portable processing unit. The camera captures continuous video feed, which is processed to detect and extract text from signage. Preliminary tests under various lighting conditions yielded accuracy rates ranging from 68.25% to 94.11%, with the highest accuracy under indirect lighting. Future work will address factors such as walking speed, user movement patterns, and environmental conditions.

Item Type:	Proceeding Paper (Slide Presentation)
Additional Information:	4535/115587
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Object recognition, text recognition, optical character recognition (OCR), visually impaired, signage
Subjects:	T Technology > TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering > TK7800 Electronics. Computer engineering. Computer hardware. Photoelectronic devices > TK7885 Computer engineering
Kulliyyahs/Centres/Divisions/Institutes (Can select more than one option. Press CONTROL button):	Kulliyyah of Engineering > Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Kulliyyah of Engineering
Depositing User:	Sr Huda Adibah Mohd Ramli
Date Deposited:	06 Nov 2024 15:06
Last Modified:	06 Nov 2024 15:19
URI:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/id/eprint/115587

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