Development of a national banknote identifier for visually impaired persons

The research project "National Banknote Identifier for Visually Impaired Persons" was developed at the Universidad Distrital "Francisco Jose de Caldas" in 2010, its results are presented in this document. We deemed the project necessary because the identification of the information in a banknote through tact is not always enough for visually impaired persons to identify the value and authenticity of the bill. The device that was designed and implemented gives persons in this condition the possibility for determining the denomination and authenticity form the bills currently in use in Colombia. That is, it is able to recognize 1,000, 2,000, 5,000, 10,000, 20,000 and 50,000 pesos bills through the analysis made by a bill reader; it afterwards produces appropriate audible signals for the system user. The use of the device lessens the degree of dependence of visually impaired people to make economic transactions.