Intel AI-Powered Backpack Helps Visually Impaired Navigate World
March 24 2021 - 11:00AM
Business Wire
What’s New: Artificial intelligence (AI) developer
Jagadish K. Mahendran and his team designed an AI-powered,
voice-activated backpack that can help the visually impaired
navigate and perceive the world around them. The backpack helps
detect common challenges such as traffic signs, hanging obstacles,
crosswalks, moving objects and changing elevations, all while
running on a low-power, interactive device.
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Jagadish K. Mahendran models his
AI-powered, voice-activated backpack that can help the visually
impaired navigate and perceive the world around them. (Graphic:
Business Wire)
“Last year when I met up with a visually
impaired friend, I was struck by the irony that while I have been
teaching robots to see, there are many people who cannot see and
need help. This motivated me to build the visual assistance system
with OpenCV’s Artificial Intelligence Kit with Depth (OAK-D),
powered by Intel.” –Jagadish K. Mahendran, Institute for Artificial
Intelligence, University of Georgia
Why It Matters: The World Health Organization estimates
that globally 285 million people are visually impaired. Meanwhile,
visual assistance systems for navigation are fairly limited and
range from Global Positioning System-based, voice-assisted
smartphone apps to camera-enabled smart walking stick solutions.
These systems lack the depth perception necessary to facilitate
independent navigation.
“It’s incredible to see a developer take Intel’s AI technology
for the edge and quickly build a solution to make their friend’s
life easier,” said Hema Chamraj, director, Technology Advocacy and
AI4Good at Intel. “The technology exists; we are only limited by
the imagination of the developer community.”
How It Works: The system is housed inside a small
backpack containing a host computing unit, such as a laptop. A vest
jacket conceals a camera, and a fanny pack is used to hold a
pocket-size battery pack capable of providing approximately eight
hours of use. A Luxonis OAK-D spatial AI camera can be affixed to
either the vest or fanny pack, then connected to the computing unit
in the backpack. Three tiny holes in the vest provide viewports for
the OAK-D, which is attached to the inside of the vest.
“Our mission at Luxonis is to enable engineers to build things
that matter while helping them to quickly harness the power of
Intel AI technology,” said Brandon Gilles, founder and chief
executive officer, Luxonis. “So, it is incredibly satisfying to see
something as valuable and remarkable as the AI-powered backpack
built using OAK-D in such a short period of time.”
The OAK-D unit is a versatile and powerful AI device that runs
on Intel Movidius VPU and the Intel® Distribution of OpenVINO™
toolkit for on-chip edge AI inferencing. It is capable of running
advanced neural networks while providing accelerated computer
vision functions and a real-time depth map from its stereo pair, as
well as color information from a single 4k camera.
A Bluetooth-enabled earphone lets the user interact with the
system via voice queries and commands, and the system responds with
verbal information. As the user moves through their environment,
the system audibly conveys information about common obstacles
including signs, tree branches and pedestrians. It also warns of
upcoming crosswalks, curbs, staircases and entryways.
More Context: A Vision System for the Visually Impaired
(Case Study) | Visual Assistance System for the Visually Impaired
(Video) | Intel OpenVINO Toolkit | Artificial Intelligence at
Intel
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Liz Wu 503-696-2098 liz.wu@intel.com
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