WO2009106702A1

WO2009106702A1 - Portable reading device for the visually impaired

Info

Publication number: WO2009106702A1
Application number: PCT/FR2008/001741
Authority: WO
Inventors: Raoul Parienti; François LE GUILLOU
Original assignee: Raoul Parienti
Priority date: 2007-12-13
Filing date: 2008-12-15
Publication date: 2009-09-03
Also published as: FR2925202A1; FR2925202B1

Abstract

The invention relates to a portable reading device for the visually impaired, consisting of a one-piece case (1) including optical means for capturing an image of a text, such as a lens (9) associated with a CCD sensor (8), means (10) for lighting the image and means for processing the image using a microprocessor (4) controlling an electronic board (6) and managing a set of memory elements (5 and 5') which store at least one OCR-type software program. The device also includes an ephemeral matrix (3) capable of displaying in Braille the characters captured by the lens (9) and the CCD sensor (8) and recognised by the microprocessor and the OCR software. The invention is characterised in that the device includes at least two fully aligned rollers (12) which are spaced as far apart from one another as possible with very little side play in order to enable the constant rectilinear movement of the device along a line.

Description

Portable reading device for the blind

The present invention discloses a portable printed text reading device for the visually impaired. The invention described herein is an improvement of EP 0 925 570 B1.

Said patent describes a portable device consisting of a box attached to the wrist of a blind person and communicating by wire to a case introduced at the end of the index of the blind, said case comprising an optical sensor and an electromagnetic matrix able to display characters in Braille by actuators raising pimples, under the index of the blind. The matrix with six pins for the Braille characters and two pins used to guide the blind to follow the line of a text.

This invention, which is an improvement over the state of the art, has several disadvantages.

Indeed, the blind who slips along a line of text holster attached to his index finger has great difficulty in having a rectilinear movement and without saccades despite the implementation of the two guide pins. In addition, the completion of two modules connected by wire, attached to the index and ^'the other attached to the wrist, had two drawbacks: - the least reliable realization that an integrated one-piece type computer mouse, the Apparatus is not very discreet and impractical and can not for example be stored in a pocket. The electromagnetic matrix described in the document cited had three disadvantages in the current state of the art: because of the miniaturization of the electromagnetic elements, the force transmitted to the pins was just sufficient, the small size of the electromagnetic elements caused a heating of the Braille matrix during prolonged use.

The fixed and restricted size of the optical window limits the area captured

The improvements presented in this document make it possible to remedy all these drawbacks.

It is a monoblock housing 1, comprising a front part comprising the elements useful for optical capture. The top of the case incorporates an ephemeral Braille 3 matrix capable of displaying characters in Braille. Fig 1.

The body of the monobloc housing 1 is made to allow ergonomic gripping and comprises means for attaching at least one accessory described below. Inside said monoblock housing 1, FIG. 2, an electronic card is orchestrated by a microprocessor 4 capable of managing at least one RAM memory 5 and a flash memory or equivalent 5 'which stores at least one "OCR" type software. The latter stores a set of software dedicated to the application. The electronic card is preferably designed to receive additional removable memories.

The lower face of the apparatus Fig 4, reveals an optical window 7 at the bottom of which are fixed: a camera comprising a CCD sensor 8 and an optical block 9 adapted, capable of providing a sharp image on the CCD sensor 8 to very small distance, typically 1 to 3 cm, - lighting means such as light emitting diodes 10.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the optical window 7 is made in a truncated or truncated pyramidal shape of preferentially clear color, so that to optimize the reflection of the light emitted by the diodes 10 and increase the signal-to-noise ratio received by the CCD sensor 8.

A light diffuser 11 made of a translucent material is fixed in the pyramidal or frustoconical shape.

This diffuser allows the CCD sensor 8 to receive uniform illumination and limit the parasitic reflection of the light reflected by glossy surfaces. The diffuser 11, Fig 2, preferably consists of two parts secured. The first is a cylinder, the second is a parallelepiped pierced to join the cylinder. Fig 2 and 4.

The object of the invention is to scroll the monobloc housing 1 along the lines of a text as rectilinear as possible, so that the images captured by the camera are interpreted by the microprocessor 4 of the electronic card 6, and a set of adapted software designed to: - recognize text, character by character that once recognized are sent to the ephemeral matrix 3 so that the blind can read any normally printed text, detect navigation errors that are likely to deflect the housing 1 of the line during its use.

By navigation, we mean the correction to make to a bad positioning of the device on a character or on a line. Indeed, the major difficulty related to the use of the invention is precisely for the blind see to scroll the device along a line without deflecting or up or down, or to make a error of rotation when positioning the device on the document to be used.

The decisive improvement that allows the invention to work properly is to integrate at least two rollers 12, Fig 2 and 3, perfectly aligned as spaced as possible, having a very small lateral play. This apparently innocuous implementation is decisive for the proper functioning of the device. Indeed, the integration of these aligned rollers allows a rectilinear and constant scroll along the line.

Associated with the improvement described above, the implementation of a piezoelectric Braille matrix makes it possible to obtain a well-adapted pusher pressure of the order of 15 to 20 grams without generating a caloric effect. However, the piezoelectric dies of the market have the major disadvantage of having a height greater than 20 millimeters which makes the use of the product inefficient. Also we describe a particular architecture of the piezoelectric elements integrated in a thin case of about 7 millimeters Fig 8.

This architecture is achieved by superimposing two planes of coplanar piezoelectric modules 13 actuating eight Braille pins. The eight pins being broken down into six for the transcription of Braille characters and two for navigation.

We will describe the operation of the device and the features of assistance to the blind person for its perfect use. In order for the device to recognize lines of text, the blind person must find the text, place the device at the beginning of the line and orient it in such a way that it can read the line from the first to the last character. By moving the device a priori from top to bottom on a surface to read, the blind person is instantly informed of the presence of the first character encountered. Said character Recognized and interpreted by electronics is transmitted in Braille under his finger via the ephemeral Braille matrix.

The navigation comprises codifications which are transmitted to the guiding pins 15 and / or by predefined sounds transmitted via the loudspeaker 16, for example a high or low piano sound to indicate an up / down positioning error, and a serious violin sound or acute to indicate clockwise or counterclockwise rotation errors that correct the following errors: positioning error up / down rotation error The software being able to set the rotation angle correction to bring to a line of characters, the navigation informs by means of the guide pins to the blind person that it is necessary that it drives the device in a rotational movement in the direction of clockwise or vice versa until the disappearance of the signaling of the rotation error by the action of the guide pins 15

Once the device is correctly oriented and correctly positioned on the text, the blind person benefits from the decisive contribution of guiding the rollers in order to rectilinearly and fluidly move the apparatus along the line of text to be read.

This feature allows a more comfortable mode of use of the invention. Indeed the ability to follow a text rectilinear way and without return, allows the recognition of letters characters by letters that appear in braille under the finger and / or hear the sound of the word spelled or complete sound via a speaker 16. The software stored in memory 5 or 5 'is designed to interpret the succession of letters and concatenate the corresponding phonemes to determine the entire word and make said word heard through the speaker 16 as the device scrolls on the text.

This use of the invention is particularly useful for the visually impaired and visually impaired and for people who do not know Braille.

The ability to read word by word and not letter by letter, can be optimized by the addition of a registration in the plane according to a diode / photodiode optical device 17, Fig 3, and its associated well-known optical tracking software such as used in computer optical mice. The device 17 providing any displacement element in the plane (X, Y), so the round-trip type errors, high low, rotation can be taken into account by the software.

Another means for a more smooth scrolling of the movement of the device along a text is to motorize at least one of the rollers 12, (not shown).

The apparatus, Fig 3 is also provided with a second CCD sensor associated with an objective constituting a second digital camera 18, cooperating with a flash 19. This camera allows shooting with a larger field capable of capturing a document or an entire page of text at a distance of a few centimeters to a few decimetres. This distance will depend on the size of the document to capture and the focal length of the lens. The camera 19 is preferably provided with an autofocus device and image stabilizer in order to obtain sharp images. The 5 'memory includes navigation software that ensures the correct positioning of the camera when shooting with the camera 18.

Any document or paragraph can be written in a rectangle. This rectangle will appear distorted if the camera is poorly positioned, this deformation is all the more important that the angle of the camera 18 is important.

To obtain a correct image, it is useful to position the camera at the top of the document when shooting.

Corrections are made by adjusting the two axes of rotation, the roll axis and the pitch axis.

If the captured image of the rectangle surrounding the document shows the horizontal sides converging to the right, roll correction must be made to the right.

If the captured image of the rectangle surrounding the document shows the horizontal sides converging to the left, roll correction must be done to the left.

If the captured image of the rectangle surrounding the document shows the vertical sides converging upward, pitch correction must be done upwards. If the captured image of the rectangle surrounding the document shows the vertical sides converging downwards, pitch correction must be done downwards.

The roll and / or pitch error indication detected by the microprocessor 4 may be communicated to the user in two ways: by the acoustic way, preferably using the method seen above, a serious or acute piano sound for the user. correct a roll right / left error, a serious or acute violin sound to correct a pitch up / down error.

- by activating the pins of the braille matrix. To do this, the microprocessor 4 then actuates the pins in order to indicate to the blind the correction to o perform. An intuitive and almost instantaneous way to get the right positioning is:

Appearance of the 6 pins of the matrix indicates that there is no error of positioning Failure of appearance of the pins of the right column indicates that it is necessary to correct in roll to the left,

Failure of appearance of the pins of the left column indicates that it is necessary to correct in roll on the right,

Failure of appearance of the upper pimples indicates that it is necessary to correct in pitching down,

Failure of appearance of the lower pins indicates that it is necessary to correct in pitch up.

The correctly photographed document is interpreted by processor 4 by means of text recognition software associated with editing software stored in memories 5 and 5 '.

After which the microprocessor 4 is capable of transmitting the interpreted text via the Braille matrix and / or via a speech synthesis module by means of conventional acoustic means such as speakers 16 or headphones.

A more efficient version of the invention consists in joining the housing with a scanner module 20, FIG.

This module consists of a device comprising a set of linear optical sensors 8 'associated with a set of LED lighting 10', allowing the capture of any document through optical sensors. This module is powered by the USB port of the case and is a scrolling scanner. This scrolling can be either manual or be operated by the motorized roller described above.

The housing and the scanner module 20 have mechanical hooking means (not shown), allowing these two elements to be secured. Once secured to housing 1, the scanner 20, provided with a male USB plug connects to the socket of the housing 1.

When a user wants to use a document, it will be sufficient to scroll the case provided with the scanner along the document, vertically or horizontally.

The housing may also include short-range electronic transmission means, such as bluetooth, and transmit the data to any suitable computer system or to a braille line.

Another more elaborate version of the invention consists in providing the top of the scanner module with a set of braille cells which will allow the user to read braille more comfortably the entire document after said document has been captured, stored and processed by the microprocessor 4 and associated software. Fig 7. The invention is provided with software for entering a text document via the USB port connected to a computer which will transfer a document to the memory of the housing for later use. This document will later be read either through the braille matrix or via the speech synthesis software. According to this operating mode, the keys 22, for example the keys programmed to increase or decrease the volume, are programmed according to a predefined procedure for managing the scrolling of the text: more or less quickly, next word, previous, skip the paragraph ...

The invention allows interactive exchanges between the user and the device and this according to all known means. For this purpose the invention is designed to communicate with a dedicated keyboard or with any computer system configured for this purpose.

The invention is provided with speech recognition software for performing verbal and to obtain feedback via braille matrix 3 or via speech synthesis software.

The invention is also capable of reading in Braille any document appearing on the screen of a computer. To do this the movement of the housing on a surface will scroll on the braille matrix successively all the letters that appear on the screen.

The electronics of the apparatus also makes it possible to define the color of any object or document placed in front of the optical window 7. To do this, in addition to the light-emitting diodes 10 of white colors, the electronic card integrates at least three color diodes, emitting for example the colors red, blue, green. The microprocessor 4 will sequentially control the illumination of at least one diode at a time and will analyze the reflection of the light emitted by the object or the document by means of the CCD sensor 8.

The invention further comprises a set of connectors, 21 such as USB socket, headphone jack, removable digital memory, ... and a set of keys 22 for controlling and performing all the described functions.

The electronics of the apparatus are powered by a rechargeable battery 23. Another embodiment of the ephemeral Braille matrix using electromagnetic technology as described above which avoids overheating during use while substantially increasing the pressure of the pins consists in substantially increasing the size of the electromagnetic elements 25, Fig 9. However, such an increase in the size of the electromagnetic elements would make it impossible to use the pins according to the normative architecture of the Braille characters. To do this, it will be useful to deport all the actuators electromagnetic Braille pimples. One of the embodiments to achieve this result consists in arranging in star Fig 9, the electromagnetic actuators, each actuator being connected to the pin by a rocker lever 24, Fig. 10 for example ratio 1: 1, which pushes the pin 25, upward when pressed. This function can be performed more easily if at least one of the rollers is motorized.

The invention described in this document can be declined in different embodiments and layout of the various subassemblies and in particular with various gripping modes, it is the same with regard to the materials used and the colors of these embodiments, while remaining within the scope of the said invention or equivalents.

Claims

1. Portable readout device for non-indicator consisting of a one-piece housing (1), comprising optical means for capturing an image of a text, such as an optical element (9) associated with a CCD sensor (8). ), illumination means (10) of said image, means for processing said image via a microprocessor (4) orchestrating an electronic card (6) and managing a set of memories (5) and (5 ') , which memorize at least one type of software "OCR"

(optical character recognition), the apparatus further comprising an ephemeral matrix (3), capable of displaying in Braille the characters input by the optics (9) and the CCD sensor (10) and recognized by the microprocessor and the "OCR" (optical character recognition) software, characterized in that the apparatus incorporates at least two rollers (12), perfectly aligned as far apart as possible, having a very small lateral clearance in order to allow a rectilinear and constant scrolling of the device along the line.

2. Portable reading device for the blind according to claim 1 characterized in that the microprocessor (4) causes the emission of predefined sounds via the speaker

(16), to indicate a positioning error, for example a serious or acute violin sound to indicate a clockwise rotation error or the opposite and a serious or acute piano sound to indicate a high error. /low.

3. A portable reading device for the blind according to claim 1 characterized in that the software stored in the memory 5 'is designed to interpret the succession of letters and concatenate the corresponding phonemes to determine the whole word and make it heard via the high speaker 16 as the device scrolls over the text.

4. Portable reading device for visually impaired according to claim 1, characterized in that it incorporates a diffuser 11 preferably consists of two parts joined together, the first is a cylinder, the second is a parallelepiped pierced to secure with the cylinder.

5. A portable reading device for blind according to claim 1, incorporating a piezoelectric braille matrix, made by superimposing two planes of coplanar piezoelectric modules (13), to obtain a small thickness of said Braille matrix.

6. A portable reading device for blind according to any one of the preceding claims further comprising a second camera (18) associated with a flash (19), allowing remote shooting whose positioning correction is ensured. by the navigation means via the actuation of the guide pins 15.

7. A portable reading device for the blind according to claim 6, characterized in that the roll or pitch errors are detected by the microprocessor (4) which then actuate the pins to indicate to the blind the correction to perform in a predetermined manner.

8. A portable reading device for blind according to claim 6, comprising navigation means stored in the memory 5 ', and allow the microprocessor (4) to analyze the angles of the sides of the rectangle surrounding the image captured by the camera 18, to determine roll and pitch axis rotation errors, the microprocessor (4) then calculating the corrections to be made by the acoustic path by predetermined sounds, via the speaker (16).

9. A portable reading device for the blind according to any one of the preceding claims characterized in that said apparatus incorporates a diode device / photodiode (17) of optical registration as used in computer optical mice, said diode / photodiode (17) providing any displacement element according to the plane

(X, Y) •

10. Portable reading device for blind according to claim 1, characterized in that the housing 1 includes an optical window (7) made in a pyramidal shape or frustoconical light color.

11. portable reading device for visually impaired according to claim 1 incorporating an ephemeral Braille matrix performed by deporting all the electromagnetic elements (24) and staring the electromagnetic actuators, each actuator being connected to the pin by a lever to rocker that pushes the pin (25), upward when actuated.

12. Portable reading device for blind according to claim 1 characterized in that the invention is secured to a scanner module (20) consisting of a device comprising a set of linear optical sensors (8 '), associated with a set of LED lighting (10 '), allowing the capture of any document through optical sensors.

13. Portable reading device for the blind according to claim 12, characterized in that all data entered by the scanner module, are transferred to the electronics of the housing by the USB connection, these data are stored in the memories (5 '), then interpreted by the microprocessor (4) and transmitted to the user via the braille matrix (3).

14. A portable reading device for the blind according to claim 13, characterized in that the set of data entered by the scanner module are interpreted by the microprocessor (4) and transmitted to the user via speech synthesis software by the speaker (16).

15. A portable reading device for the blind according to claim 1, characterized in that at least one of the rollers (12) is motorized to allow a more smooth scrolling of the movement of the device along a text.

16. A portable reading device for the blind according to claim 1, characterized in that the architecture of the ephemeral matrix is achieved by superimposing two planes of coplanar piezoelectric modules (13) actuating eight Braille pins. The eight pins being broken down into six for the transcription of Braille characters and two for navigation.

17. A portable reading device for the blind according to claim 1, characterized in that the navigation comprises navigation codifications which are transmitted to the guide pins (15).

18. Portable reading device for the blind according to claim 1, characterized in that the invention is provided with a speech recognition software stored in the memory (5 ') for performing verbal requests

19. Portable reading device for blind according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it is provided with a digital camera (18), cooperating with a flash (19), allowing shooting of documents remotely, the documents thus captured are stored in the memory (5 '), and interpreted by the microprocessor (4) and speech synthesis software via the speaker (16).

20 portable reading device for blind according to claim 1, characterized in that the electronic card incorporates at least three color diodes, the microprocessor (4) will sequentially control the illumination of at least one diode at a time and will analyze the reflected light to determine the color of the illuminated object.