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by johnf
Sun Sep 23, 2018 8:27 pm
Forum: Assistive technology and accessibility
Topic: Sight for the Blind for <100$
Replies: 718
Views: 168017

Re: Sight for the Blind for <100$

Hello, Folks...
Pimoroni have come up with a Pi Zero with official Pi camera connector.. at a very low price.
This unit is now shaved down as thin as possible.. with a single core processor.
So maybe a lightweight head mounted basic vOICe without extras could be realised?
john
by johnf
Sat Jan 06, 2018 5:31 pm
Forum: Assistive technology and accessibility
Topic: Sight for the Blind for <100$
Replies: 718
Views: 168017

Re: Sight for the Blind for <100$

Hi, all. Sorry for nosing in on this conversation. I started on pages 1 and 2 then skipped to the end and have a lot of catching up to do. I am very excited to read what has been going on over the course of time. Here is my background: I am an ophthalmologist in the US who treats retinal diseases a...
by johnf
Sun May 07, 2017 9:59 pm
Forum: Assistive technology and accessibility
Topic: Need help for project for blind people
Replies: 10
Views: 9400

Re: Need help for project for blind people

Things have come an awful long way since 2015. Ref. your remark of "why cameras for blind?".. well, have a look at seeingwithsound.com which is the fountain of knowledge for Sight Replacement. This is as good as a cheap autonomous system can get. The user has to learn the meaning of "soundscapes" co...
by johnf
Wed Jun 22, 2016 2:26 pm
Forum: Assistive technology and accessibility
Topic: Sight for the Blind for <100$
Replies: 718
Views: 168017

Re: Sight for the Blind for <100$

I have an Adafruit Pi spy camera which has a tiny camera with 11 inch film ribbon cable. This functions fine with adaptors to screened HDMI cable (adaptor to R-Pi flat cable at either end of HDMI). I am mounting this in a tubular stylus which could be the secondary camera to an After-Sight system. W...
by johnf
Fri Mar 11, 2016 8:59 pm
Forum: Assistive technology and accessibility
Topic: PI for People with Disabilities
Replies: 7
Views: 5764

Re: Disabilities

The raspberry-vi (Visually Impaired) group are moving ahead ,mainly with Blind-Assistance, but have a great deal of expertise with speech control & synthesis using the Pi/2. Also consult After- Sight.com which is a startup presently prototyping a wearable Pi/2 system which will offer navigation, Wi...
by johnf
Fri Feb 26, 2016 10:47 pm
Forum: Assistive technology and accessibility
Topic: Sight for the Blind for <100$
Replies: 718
Views: 168017

Re: Sight for the Blind for <100$

I look like I am smiling to read this about the *** but no, it`s just me grinding my teeth together.. The useability problems are melting away which is marvellous. After-Sight is going places. However, am I not right in saying that the problems of cloning an SD Card image remain serious for many of ...
by johnf
Sun Dec 27, 2015 1:23 pm
Forum: Assistive technology and accessibility
Topic: Sight for the Blind for <100$
Replies: 718
Views: 168017

Re: Sight for the Blind for <100$

Good precautionary thinking. Another idea might be to have a duplicated operating system on a separate partition on SD card. Feasible? If things can go wrong, they will go wrong. People forget about connecting leads in the heat of the moment . It is so easy for impatient users to get a new product a...
by johnf
Sat Dec 26, 2015 10:15 pm
Forum: Assistive technology and accessibility
Topic: Sight for the Blind for <100$
Replies: 718
Views: 168017

Re: Sight for the Blind for <100$

I read a while ago that caution is required when switching off The RaspiVoice , the power needs to be maintained during a period of closing down, otherwise the SD card risks being corrupted. a) How serious an operational risk is this? b) Would it be feasible to have a tiny onboard battery reserved j...
by johnf
Mon Nov 30, 2015 9:14 pm
Forum: Assistive technology and accessibility
Topic: Sight for the Blind for <100$
Replies: 718
Views: 168017

Re: Sight for the Blind for <100$

Having explored the use of the raspberry pi camera module in the past, the results were somewhat encouraging. Using the camera module uses the CSI connector which accesses the GPU directly. I had a few issues with the camera. 1. As you mentioned, it needs a lens 2. It needs a case with mounting sol...
by johnf
Mon Nov 30, 2015 11:40 am
Forum: Assistive technology and accessibility
Topic: Sight for the Blind for <100$
Replies: 718
Views: 168017

Re: Sight for the Blind for <100$

Ok mikey, understood. Now, going right back to fundamentals.. Is it necessary nowadays to do repeated frame grabs followed by sonification? The Raspberry-pi camera pixels can be directly addressed I believe. What is the sound output at any specific instant? Surely it is a (dis)chord which sums up th...
by johnf
Sun Nov 29, 2015 10:55 pm
Forum: Assistive technology and accessibility
Topic: Sight for the Blind for <100$
Replies: 718
Views: 168017

Re: Sight for the Blind for <100$

I bought an ODROID C just before the Pi-2 came out. It was supplied by LILLIPUT UK along with a camera. I am almost certain that this particular camera is UVC compliant, and it closely resembles a camera in the same advertised series as Jacob K. has described. Check details with Lilliput of course. ...
by johnf
Sat Aug 01, 2015 10:19 pm
Forum: Assistive technology and accessibility
Topic: Need help for project for blind people
Replies: 10
Views: 9400

Re: Need help for project for blind people

There is a well established process called "The vOICe" (add Dr. Peter Meijer to the websearch!). This aims to sonify a low res image from a brow or specframe cam , with very simple audio code. The system has OCR capabilities, colour analysis, etc. It is barely functional on a Pi-B, presumably will w...
by johnf
Tue Jun 23, 2015 9:00 pm
Forum: Assistive technology and accessibility
Topic: Sight for the Blind for <100$
Replies: 718
Views: 168017

Re: Sight for the Blind for <100$

Coolcomponents are offering a metal alloy box to fit the Raspi. The box is stated to function as a large area heat sink. If an extra layer PCB or control panel were part of the design, maybe an extra-deep lid could be 3D printed to fit the alloy casing. Heat buildup and passive dissipation should be...
by johnf
Mon May 18, 2015 3:17 pm
Forum: Assistive technology and accessibility
Topic: Sight for the Blind for <100$
Replies: 718
Views: 168017

Re: Sight for the Blind for <100$

It is not only the advantage of low cost sight for the blind that will count. Details like portability, parts availability, ergonomics, battery endurance... These are what will sell the concept. I went to LILLIPUT and bought an ODROID C with camera and USB soundcard and basic Android 4.2. I can now ...
by johnf
Thu Jan 16, 2014 12:06 am
Forum: Other projects
Topic: STICKY: The projects list. Look here for some ideas.
Replies: 232
Views: 368520

Re: The projects list. Look here for some ideas.

Woops.... When I wrote the post, I forgot to take account of the particular aspect of power consumption. Trail Cameras have very small sleeping power demands. Battery service life is months to capture hundreds of pictures. Unless a sleep condition can be imposed upon the Pi, I cannot see how the Pi ...
by johnf
Tue Aug 20, 2013 7:26 pm
Forum: Assistive technology and accessibility
Topic: Sight for the Blind for <100$
Replies: 718
Views: 168017

Re: Sight for the Blind for <100$

The crowdsourcing option is attractive , but the need remains for a financially profitable outcome. Hard to imagine how The vOICe can be made into a commercially successful business. However, there are other ways to address the problem. Blindness, worldwide, is a major issue and there are assistive ...
by johnf
Mon Aug 19, 2013 9:27 pm
Forum: Assistive technology and accessibility
Topic: Sight for the Blind for <100$
Replies: 718
Views: 168017

Re: Sight for the Blind for <100$

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/254449872/pixy-cmucam5-a-fast-easy-to-use-vision-sensor is a fearsome little camera board with object recognition (2 core processor) and potential for facial recognition. It outputs (kind) and (position) to Arduino, as a robot head device. What about this CPU-savi...
by johnf
Mon Aug 05, 2013 7:11 pm
Forum: Assistive technology and accessibility
Topic: Sight for the Blind for <100$
Replies: 718
Views: 168017

Re: Sight for the Blind for <100$

Hi... It has occurred to me that ,if you consider the normal use of The vOICe, it is as a moving scan of a vertical stack of pixels. According to height and brightness of each pixel, a sound waveform is generated, and additively mixed with the other outputs of the stack. For this demonstration of si...
by johnf
Fri Jul 26, 2013 8:33 pm
Forum: Assistive technology and accessibility
Topic: Sight for the Blind for <100$
Replies: 718
Views: 168017

Re: Sight for the Blind for <100$

http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/1722614.pdf
is a beginners level step by step guide.... please forgive if I am under-estimating your guru status.
johnf
by johnf
Wed Jul 24, 2013 4:42 pm
Forum: Assistive technology and accessibility
Topic: Sight for the Blind for <100$
Replies: 718
Views: 168017

Re: Sight for the Blind for <100$

The question of Pi camera cables came up in a recent post. In the forum under "replacement camera cables" it is indeed proven that up to 4 metre length of camera cables can be used. This is the flat ribbon type as originally supplied, not very cosmetically attractive as a headcam connector, and very...
by johnf
Tue Jul 23, 2013 7:32 pm
Forum: Assistive technology and accessibility
Topic: Sight for the Blind for <100$
Replies: 718
Views: 168017

Re: Sight for the Blind for <100$

Referring back to the matter of "blinders"(horse blinkers to Brits); there is a very interesting variation to produce a wide horizontal slot perhaps 20 or 30 pixels high. Go to the Windows vOICe Help menu. Then choose Find Executable. Type in the following command. Note the space after exe ;) . voic...
by johnf
Fri May 17, 2013 9:24 pm
Forum: General discussion
Topic: What would you use ??
Replies: 4
Views: 1085

Re: What would you use ??

Hi, siqu. A current meter has to offer a very low resistance to the rest of the system, and the low resistance shunt connection is traditional, cheap and effective. The small voltage drop across the shunt resistor, which could be a massive bar of metal ( for large currents) provides a linear signal ...
by johnf
Mon Mar 12, 2012 8:39 pm
Forum: General discussion
Topic: STICKY: Introduce yourself!
Replies: 3442
Views: 54525

Re: Introduce yourself!

<t>Karmeck said: <br/> <br/> <br/> Hi I'm Johan from Sweden.<br/> <br/> The pi to me is a emulator, media box and he helping tool. I help a blind man for a living and to get a speech aid working on the pi would not only help my client but many others with the same problem. Most of them are old and d...
by johnf
Sun Mar 11, 2012 10:08 pm
Forum: Other projects
Topic: Starting a projects list.
Replies: 15
Views: 7269

Re: Starting a projects list.

<r>jonititan said: <br/> <br/> <br/> I"m going to do a machine vision project.<br/> <br/> <URL url="http://www.raspberrypi.org/for.....8;search=3">http://www.raspberrypi.org/for.....8;search=3</URL><br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> I am working on The vOICe  which is  a   DIY  cyborg  vision substitution for ...
by johnf
Mon Feb 06, 2012 10:01 pm
Forum: Other projects
Topic: Android
Replies: 34
Views: 8524

Re: Android

<t>Thank you for information.  As for your remarks about accessibility, I guess that  The vOICe  is a fully formed  medical research  tool, with a wide range of subordinate  effects  built in.... The very interesting colour, movement,and other camera functions alone would make  it a  robotics  asset...

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