ENORASI Assistive Computer Vision-based System for the Visually Impaired: A User Evaluation Study

Visual impairment affects a significantly large number of individuals and in many cases it may disturb their daily life. This study presents a novel prototype wearable device which aims to assist them in tasks such as navigation within outdoor sites of cultural interest, while it may be used to enhance their experience. It presents an overview of the system architecture, which includes a wearable component, a cloud infrastructure, and a remote assistant service. The wearable components is a set of smart glasses, equipped with a stereoscopic camera, serving as a link between the cloud infrastructure and the remote assisting service of the system. User evaluation trials of the system have been performed, focusing on the obstacle detection capabilities of the system, and preliminary results are reported. The results provide initial evidence about the usability of the system, and indicate its potential as a future assistive technology for people with impairments.