SoV Lite is the advancement of existing research and experience gained in the Sound of Vision project, in the direction of developing a lightweight, ergonomic and inexpensive system to assist the blind in navigating and perceiving unknown environments, indoor and outdoor by running the system on a smartphone, simplifying data acquisition units.
In order to fulfill the project’s main objective, the consortium have identified the following operational objectives:
An objective of the SoV Lite project is to reduce the computational load of the processing unit by establishing two separate modes of operation for the blind assistance system (navigation and perception)
The system detects and divides objects into a large number of classes (e.g. man, car, school, pharmacy, table, chair) and reproduces by audio and haptic signals the basic and secondary characteristics (such as color, material and shape), of these objects. The team wants to unify indoor and outdoor processing flows, especially for the navigation module, in order to obtain a more reliable and easier to use system
The Sound of Vision project has developed a very powerful tool for training the blind, using virtual environments combined with gradual exposure to system functionalities in real environments. In the conditions of creating a simplified system, there will be adapted the training techniques for the visually impaired, for a more efficient use of the new functionalities
In SoV Lite will be developed a series of audio-haptic games for the blind, using the interaction methods (sonication, haptification) developed in Sound of Vision. They will support the gamified training of blind people to use the SoV Lite system, as well as their entertainment