SINGAPORE – A brand new headset developed by a group of college researchers goals to present “sight” to the visually impaired – at a price ticket of beneath $500.
Dubbed AiSee, the prototype works by analysing pictures seen by a built-in digicam and giving details about the thing to the person by a verbal immediate.
Affiliate Professor Suranga Nanayakkara, lead researcher of Undertaking AiSee on the Nationwide College of Singapore (NUS), mentioned: “We wish to essentially rethink how interfaces between human and expertise might be made to suit the skills and expectations of the goal customers.”
He added: “To realize this imaginative and prescient, we create novel human-computer interfaces and interactions that seamlessly combine with a person’s thoughts, physique and behavior, offering an enhanced notion and cognition.
“We name these ‘assistive augmentations’, which not solely take a look at compensating lack of means, but in addition deal with serving to customers obtain their full potential.”
Throughout his postdoctoral research on the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise in 2012, Prof Nanayakkara noticed how a blind buddy would take photos of lecture notes along with his telephone digicam.
He would use his arms to really feel the sides of the paper after which maintain the telephone above it to take an image earlier than utilizing KNFB Reader – a cell app for blind, low-vision and different print-disabled customers that converts textual content to speech – to hearken to the textual content.
Prof Nanayakkara thought an all-in-one gadget with a digicam may do the job quicker and higher.
“This was the inspiration for this specific gadget. I needed to develop an interface that gives seamless entry to individuals to work together with the world,” he mentioned.
Worn on the pinnacle, AiSee is a compact gadget which lets customers establish objects by holding them up and capturing a picture with the press of a button. Its built-in digicam extracts options reminiscent of textual content and logos for processing.
A man-made intelligence (AI)-powered picture processing unit within the headset then makes use of giant language fashions (LLMs) reminiscent of Open AI’s ChatGPT 4.0 to understand and reply to the person’s queries shortly.
The headset bypasses ears, transmitting sound by the cranium. This lets visually impaired customers obtain auditory info whereas with the ability to nonetheless hear what’s going on round them, making it safer for them, particularly throughout dangerous conditions.
AiSee, which was first developed in 2018 by Prof Nanayakkara and his group, has since been modified from a finger-worn (ring-like) interface right into a headphone, making it hands-free and straightforward to put on.
The brand new prototype is supported by LLMs to permit customers to have a extra pure interplay with the gadget.
The preliminary analysis and growth for the challenge, which was began in 2015, was supported by analysis grants from varied organisations. The group has additionally acquired $150,000 from B.P. de Silva Holdings for the following part of its challenge.
Discussions are ongoing with SG Allow to conduct person testing with 5 individuals with visible impairment.
The findings will assist to refine and enhance AiSee’s options and efficiency. Subject checks will start in July for 3 to 4 months, to acquire suggestions from the customers to enhance the gadget.
