IBM Develops Application For Blind People

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IBM develops cognitive application with Carnegie Mellon to guide visually impaired people.

IBM Corporation has taken a step to address the concerns of visually impaired people. It has collaborated with Carnegie Mellon University to establish a system for developing cognitive assistance applications for the blind people. CMU and IBM Research’s scientific experts lately proclaimed a new open platform to provide support to the development of smartphone applications that could let the blind people keep a track of their environment in a better manner.

IBM News disclosed that Big Blue teamed up with the University’s famous robotics institute to develop a pilot application, known as NavCog, which uses cognitive technologies and currently offered sensors to provide information to blind people in the CMU campus about the environment by “whispering” into their ears through the ear buds or by formation of sensations on smartphones. The NavCog application would soon be offered free on the Application Store.

IBM Breaking News reported that an official of IBM and visiting faculty member at CMU, Chieko Asakawa, stated, "While visually impaired people like myself have become independent online, we are still challenged in the real world. To gain further independence and help improve the quality of life, ubiquitous connectivity across indoor and outdoor environments is necessary. I'm excited that this open platform will help accelerate the advancement of cognitive assistance research by giving developers opportunities to build various accessibility applications and test non-traditional technologies such as ultrasonic and advanced inertial sensors to assist navigation."

IBM news today exclaimed that the organization has developed the first series of cognitive support instruments for developers offered through its BlueMix Platform as a Service (PaaS). The open instrument kit comprises of an application for steering, a map excision instrument, and localization procedures that could inform blind people about their location, direction, and additional details about the neighboring environment.

The computer vision software is equipped with the capacity to turn smartphone photos of the nearby environment into a three dimensional space model to enhance navigation and localization for people with impaired vision.

The integration of these various technologies, called as "cognitive assistance", an accessibility research field employed to help blind to re-gather details by supplementing weakening or missed capabilities. Research experts aim to make an addition of a variety of localization technologies, encompassing sensor fusion, which combines information from various environmental sensors or modern cognitive functioning, like facial identification in public places.

It could be claimed that IBM’s initiative would be welcomed by different organizations aiming to serve the visually impaired people, as it tends to serve their interests.