Intel and AI Developer Create Backpack That Helps Navigate Persons with Visual Impairment
Americas, Assistive Technology, April 22 2021
US: What differentiates an animal from a machine are its mirror neurons, a set of neurons in an organism’s brain that is fired to perform a task based on the performance of self or others. Discovered in 1991, the research on mirror neurons is still going on, and the Giacomo Rizzolatti research group believes that these neurons are the biological basis of compassion and empathy.
Jagadish K. Mahendran, an independent Artificial Intelligence (AI) developer, and his team have collaborated with Intel to help ease the mode of transport for visually impaired people. He shared that “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.” For Mahendran, his visually impaired friend’s daily routine difficulties became the conception ground for this project.
Navigating the world
Mahendran and the team did a lot of case studies and asked visually impaired people [...]