AI-Enabled Smart Glasses for People with Severe Vision Impairments

Abstract

Over the last decade, there has been significant research on how smart assistive devices with artificial intelligence (AI) built into them can assist people with severe vision impairments to comprehend their surroundings. These devices come in various forms such as smartphone applications, smart-glasses, and smart canes. Smart glasses have gained popularity lately due to recent technological advancements, as well as their natural position in front of the user's eyes. However, there has been limited research to understand how people with severe vision impairments would prefer to interact with them. The objective of this project is to investigate the use of AI-enabled smart-glasses to aid individuals with severe vision impairments. The research aims to comprehend the differences between the types of research conducted by researchers and the needs and desires of the community. The study will utilise a Design Thinking approach and involve vision-impaired users throughout the project by utilising co-design methods. The research will involve the development of smart-glass application prototypes through iterative case studies with individuals who are blind, have low-vision, and have cerebral vision impairment (CVI). The goal is to understand the users' preferred interaction model from their lived experiences. The outcome of the research will also be a software architecture that enables people with severe vision impairments to seamlessly access information about their surroundings.