BlindVision: Assistive Visual Technology for the Blind

1. Invention title: Blind Vision
2. Summary explanation -- how it works:
   BlindVision helps the elderly, or others with a visual impairment. The system can take the form of a wearable device, or can also take the form of a hand-held device (e.g. an app on a smartphone or the like). In a preferred embodiment, a hat or head mesh or the like contains stimulators that are sensed by the wearer, while a 3D depth camera provides a scene description to the wearer.
3. Example commercial applications:
   Helps blind people "see".

   Safety, health, wellness, personal security, etc., can be provided by the wearable camera and headworn stimulators to allow the blind to in some sense "see", i.e. to sense their visual surroundings through the wearcam (wearable camera). The market can be to blind people themselves, or through insurance and other providers, and organizations that provide assistance to the blind. Also, other markets can include service providers, etc., e.g. services provided through remote experts, assistants, or AI (Artificial Intelligence) "engines" or "bots".

4. Link to technical papers associated with the invention:
   • Blind Navigation with a Wearable Range Camera and Vibrotactile Helmet;
   • Wearablerable, tetherless computer--mediated reality: WearCam as a wearable face--recognizer, and other applications for the disabled, S. Mann, 1996;
   • IEEE Computer, Vol. 30, No. 2, February 1997, pages 25-32 (available also as PDF).
   
5. Patent applications filed or issued: work-in-progress.
6. Prototypes constructed: Several working prototypes have been constructed by S. Mann and his research team. Additional work is required regarding industrial design and other improvements.
7. Further possibilities: This would be undertaken by Steve Mann, Ryan Janzen, and others, ideally an engineering team. See also related inventions: Visual Memory Prosthetic, and Glogger.

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