音響伝達による盲人用視覚補助装置の開発

抄録

A sensory substitute for blind people on the basis of acoustic transmission has been developed and practical tests have been carried out. The characteristic of the method is that the apparatus uses stereoscopic audible signal transmission so that blind people can detect scenery images more clearly. Wide-scope distances are detected with use of a camera and a slit-type laser under the principle of triangulation. Distance signals in eight directions are transformed into variable frequency signals corresponding to the actual distances and are simultaneously transmitted to a person through a headphone set as stereoscopic audible signals. This function made it possible for a user to recognize the simple scene of objects which lie in front of him and to walk between the obstacles. As a result of the practical test, it became evident that the percentage of valid answers in recognizing the object shape was high and the walking stability was improved with training. It is confirmed that the apparatus can be used as a vision substitute.