Smart Glasses for Blind People Using Raspberry Pi

Abstract

Visual impairment poses a significant challenge for humanity, especially in today's era where information is predominantly conveyed through text messages, both electronic and paper-based, rather than voice communication. The innovation of "Smart Glasses" aims to empower visually impaired individuals by assisting them in person identification and reading typed English text. These groundbreaking devices serve as a solution to inspire blind students to overcome educational obstacles.

The primary goal of these glasses is to revolutionize the reading experience for the blind and facilitate their communication. The initial function involves scanning any text image and converting it into audio text, which is then relayed to the user through headphones connected to the glasses. Additionally, the glasses utilize advanced technologies such as OCR (Optical Character Recognition), gTTS (Google Text-to-Speech), and openCV to perform their tasks.

The glasses accomplish text detection in images through a combination of OpenCV and Optical Character Recognition technology, employing Tesseract and an Efficient and Accurate Scene Text Detector. To convert text into speech, Text-to-Speech technology (gTTS) is employed. However, it's important to note that the current version of the glasses has limitations, such as supporting only the English language and having a maximum image capture distance of 40-150 cm.

Looking ahead, future plans involve expanding language support to encompass a variety of languages and improving the design for enhanced comfort and portability. This ongoing development aims to make Smart Glasses a more inclusive and user-friendly tool for the visually impaired community.