Enhanced Vision has developed a portable head mounted camera and display system that is used by visually impaired patients to improve their long distance vision as well as reading capability. The current system is ideal for long distance viewing such as scenery but EV believes the reading function can be improved. The company is proposing to develop a computer module which will be added to the current system to greatly enhance the patient's reading ability. The problem with current systems of magnification is that many patient's require such high levels of magnification that they are only able to view one or two words of a page on an entire screen. A slight movement by the patient completely disturbs their placement on the page and requires them to realign their camera. This process of continually readjusting is tedious and tiresome. The EVS module will eliminate the patient's needing to realign the camera because the entire page is acquired digitally at one time. The words can then be scrolled in front of the patient on the head mounted display system with auditory accompaniment if the patient desires.
Anticipated Results/Potential Commercial Applications of Research::The final result of the Phase I research will be a PC based system which accomplishes the objectives outline above in part d). In Phase II the entire system will be moved to an embedded portable system that works in conjunction with the current EVS system to assist a visually impaired person to read text from any type of surface
