MobileEyes

The population of aging adults in the United States is entering a period of rapid growth as baby boomers get older and life expectancy continues to increase. One problem that is significantly affecting their ability to live and function independently is low vision, a condition typically caused by eye disease that results in 20/70 vision or worse that can not be corrected with glasses or surgery. Given the importance and high cost of healthcare for elderly adults, applications of technology that provide visual enhancement for low-vision persons are especially valuable. Existing vision enhancement devices, such as magnifying glasses, telescopes, or electronic video resolution enhancement products typically task specific, require special hardware and may not be easily adapted to specific visual needs of the user. Our software based Mobile Eyes solution makes use of existing devices which are commonly available, and that users likely carry anyway.

Our solution is Mobile Eyes, a software based add-on suite which uses existing camera enabled PDA or cell phone hardware to provide enhanced electronic imaging capabilities for the elderly or the visually impaired. This system provides video based magnification and contrast enhancement, with specialized enhancement for text including perspective correction, stabilization, de-blurring, resolution enhancement, and contrast enhancement. The system is configurable to account for the specific needs of the given user. The technical contributions focuses on text enhancement since an inability to read directly impacts daily activities such as shopping, preparing meals, taking medication, or even using household appliances. The enhanced text is displayed on the device and will be easily read by low vision users.

Our product is still in the developement stage, but please contact us if you are interested in more information.