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Blind People 'Read' Facial Expressions With New Tactile Display System

by Caleb Johnson on April 29, 2010 at 02:21 PM

While they can have a conversation, visually impaired people miss out on the most important part -- facial expressions. But a new system could change the blind's perception. According to Popular Science, a student -- as a thesis project at Umeà University in Sweden -- has developed a potentially groundbreaking technology that uses a Web-cam and a computer to transmit a series of vibrations, representing facial expressions, to a blind person.

The idea is fairly simple. A person sits in front of the camera and talks. The camera reads different expressions and emotions -- joy, anger, sadness, humor -- and uses a computer to turn those into data. The data is sent to a tactile display system, which is a device with a bunch of vibrators in it, mounted on the back of the blind person's chair. Different patterns of vibrations represent different facial expressions. Of course, the blind still must learn the patterns in order to interpret the meaning, in a way similar to Braille.

There are some hurdles to overcome, though. It will take time to turn every human expression into data that can then be expressed via vibrations. Plus, the system will need to be more mobile in order to have any commercial appeal. Still, it certainly adds new meaning to the phrase "You feel me?" [From: Science Daily, via: Popular Science]

Tags: accessibility, blind, braille, camera, research, top, UmeaUniversity, VisuallyImpaired, WebCam

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