Special glasses convert images into sounds to help the visually impaired

New Scientist : Researchers at Caltech have been developing a pair of smart glasses to help those with limited sight navigate their surroundings. Called vOICe (OIC stands for “Oh! I See”), it consists of a pair of dark glasses and a camera, which are connected to a computer. With the use of an algorithm, the computer converts video captured by the camera into sound by associating visual data such as brightness and spatial height with aspects of sound such as volume and pitch. The researchers tried to make the system as intuitive as possible. For example, a dark object at the bottom of the frame would be translated into a quiet, low-pitched sound, and a bright object at the top would be loud and high pitched. Although the prototype device has only been tested in the lab so far, the researchers hope their work will eventually lead to the design of better vision aids.