Independent travel is a well-known challenge for blind and visually impaired persons. In this paper, we propose a proof-of-concept computer vision-based wayfinding aid for blind people to independently access unfamiliar indoor environments. In order to find different rooms (e.g. an office, a laboratory, or a bathroom) and other building amenities (e.g. an exit or an elevator), we incorporate object detection with text recognition. First, we develop a robust and efficient algorithm to detect doors, elevators, and cabinets based on their general geometric shape, by combining edges and corners. The algorithm is general enough to handle large intra-class variations of objects with different appearances among different indoor environments, as well as small inter-class differences between different objects such as doors and door-like cabinets. Next, to distinguish intra-class objects (e.g. an office door from a bathroom door), we extract and recognize text information associated with the detected objects. For text recognition, we first extract text regions from signs with multiple colors and possibly complex backgrounds, and then apply character localization and topological analysis to filter out background interference. The extracted text is recognized using off-the-shelf optical character recognition software products. The object type, orientation, location, and text information are presented to the blind traveler as speech.

中文翻译：

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面向盲人进入陌生室内环境的基于计算机视觉的寻路辅助。

独立旅行对于盲人和视障人士来说是一项众所周知的挑战。在本文中，我们提出了一种基于概念验证的基于计算机视觉的寻路辅助工具，用于盲人独立进入不熟悉的室内环境。为了找到不同的房间（例如办公室、实验室或浴室）和其他建筑设施（例如出口或电梯），我们将对象检测与文本识别相结合。首先，我们开发了一种强大而高效的算法，通过结合边和角，根据门、电梯和橱柜的一般几何形状来检测它们。该算法的通用性足以处理不同室内环境中具有不同外观的物体的大类内变化，以及不同物体（例如门和门式橱柜）之间的小类间差异。下一个，为了区分类内对象（例如办公室门和浴室门），我们提取并识别与检测到的对象相关的文本信息。对于文本识别，我们首先从具有多种颜色和可能复杂背景的标志中提取文本区域，然后应用字符定位和拓扑分析来滤除背景干扰。提取的文本使用现成的光学字符识别软件产品进行识别。对象类型、方向、位置和文本信息作为语音呈现给盲人旅行者。我们首先从具有多种颜色和可能复杂背景的标志中提取文本区域，然后应用字符定位和拓扑分析来滤除背景干扰。提取的文本使用现成的光学字符识别软件产品进行识别。对象类型、方向、位置和文本信息作为语音呈现给盲人旅行者。我们首先从具有多种颜色和可能复杂背景的标志中提取文本区域，然后应用字符定位和拓扑分析来滤除背景干扰。提取的文本使用现成的光学字符识别软件产品进行识别。对象类型、方向、位置和文本信息作为语音呈现给盲人旅行者。