US 2010/0144291 A1 · VISION ASSISTANCE USING MOBILE TELEPHONE

Abstract

Methods and system for providing vision assistance using a portable telephone with a built-in camera. In some embodiments, the system identifies the value of a bank note by determining the average number of transitions between black and white in each vertical line of pixels corresponding to a numeric digit. In other embodiments, the system captures an image and identifies an object in the image by comparing the value of each pixel in the image to a threshold intensity and marking the pixels that exceed the threshold. The system then generates a plurality of candidate groups by grouping marked pixels that are within a predetermined distance from other marked pixels. The object is identified based on the relative position of each candidate group to other candidate groups.

Claims25

Dependent claims

A method of identifying a value of a bank note using a portable telephone with a built-in camera, the method comprising:

capturing an image of the bank note;
converting the image of the bank note to a black and white image;
locating a numeric value printed on the bank note in the image;
dividing the numeric value into a plurality of vertical lines;
identifying a vertical line that includes only white pixels as an end of a first digit in the numeric value;
determining a number of transitions between black and white in each of a plurality of vertical lines corresponding to the first digit;
calculating an average number of transitions between white and black for the plurality of vertical lines corresponding to the first digit;
and
identifying the first digit based on the average number of transitions.

6 more elements

A method of providing vision assistance using a portable telephone with a built-in camera, the method comprising:

activate a flash mechanism of the portable telephone;
capturing an image of a reflective object through the built-in camera;
and
identifying the reflective object in the image by
comparing a brightness value of each pixel in the image to a threshold intensity,
marking a plurality of pixels that exceed the threshold intensity,
generating a plurality of candidate groups of one or more marked pixels from the plurality of marked pixels, the marked pixels of a candidate group being within a threshold distance of other marked pixels in the candidate group, and
identifying the reflective object in the image by determining a relative position of each candidate group to other candidate groups.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Vision assistance using mobile telephone

Life of this patent

Vision assistance using mobile telephone

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims25