Zhenzhong Wang, an electrical engineering PhD student, demonstrates the automated book reader and is working to improve the prototype’s software. Photo by Danny Rodriguez.
Danny Rodriguez//Contributing Writer
The College of Business and School of Engineering are developing innovations to give back a level of independence to the world’s 285 million visually impaired individuals, a number reported by the World Health Organization.
The College of Business’ EyeTalk team has developed a pair of glasses that uses a high resolution camera, a mobile processing unit and a microphone to deliver text to speech of any readable surface to the user.
Similarly, the School of Engineering has developed an automated book reader — a mobile station that uses a two-camera system and optical character recognition software to read it to the user.
The EyeTalk concept originated from numerous classes by Professor Seema Pissaris of the Department of Management and International Business. Viurinel Sanchez, alum and current CEO of Eyetalk, who developed drone software to help differentiate objects in a large plane, proposed that the class use similar software to help the blind.
The idea accelerated and entered into the University of Washington’s Global Social Entrepreneur Competition, a platform where university-level students are tasked with combining business principles to world issues.
“The millennial generation is very interested in solving these problems because it involves creativity and technology,” Pissaris said.
The team earned a semi-finalist spot alongside Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale. Pissariss said the judges called the team’s technology “disruptive.”
The School of Engineering’s automated book reader had a similar beginning, starting as a PhD dissertation by Malek Adjouadi, biomedical engineering professor, and his student Lu Wang. The project has since become a project for graduate students.
Zhenzhong Wang, an electrical engineering doctoral student, is hoping to work on the mathematical equations in the software to help increase its recognition capabilities.
Adjouadi said he is hopeful that this transformative technology will catch on.
“With these tools, [the blind] no longer have to ask a neighbor or someone else to read to them, especially their personal mail,” Adjouadi said.
Both local and international reaction to these projects has been positive.
Pissaris said that since the EyeTalk team’s debut, it has garnered interest from private investors and groups such as Miami Lighthouse for the Blind.
Both Adjouadi and Pissariss haved demoed their products to blind individuals.
Adjouadi said the automated book prototype is ready to be delivered to schools and the University’s Disability Resource Center for further testing. He said it would take less than two hours to train a person to use the technology.
The EyeTalk team is in the process of improving the prototype and looking for funding to complete it. Avenues such as the crowdfunding site KickStarter are being looked into with a potential plan of having one ready in the next 40 days. Pissaris is also hopeful that the team will be able to include a translation feature in future demos.
“It’s not about the competition, or a million dollars,” said Pissariss. “It’s about helping people live a better life.”
Adjouadi shares the same sentiment.
“For me, it’s like opening a new door that wasn’t there,” Adjouadi said.
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