Raspberry pi based reader for blind people

The idea of this project is to build an automated virtual reader. In this modern era, there is an urge for an automated reader which is cost-effective, accurate and also portable at the same time. The product is based on a Raspberry Pi module that also has a camera connected to it which is used to t

Project Title

Raspberry pi based reader for blind people

Project Area of Specialization

Electrical/Electronic Engineering

Project Summary

The idea of this project is to build an automated virtual reader. In this modern era, there is an urge for an automated reader which is cost-effective, accurate and also portable at the same time. The product is based on a Raspberry Pi module that also has a camera connected to it which is used to take pictures. The whole bodywork is also integrated with Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Text-To-Speech (TTS) and a speaker.  A button is also integrated with the Raspberry Pi which helps initiate the program and carry out all the functions. After the successful capturing of the picture, the system carries out some basic image processing black and white conversion and de-noising. The processed image is then supplied to the Tesseract-OCR which understands the characters and TTS is used to convert the text to audio format. 

Project Objectives

The world is improving in its technological sector at a very rapid pace. Yet, still, there are some problems that are being faced every day like people suffering from visual disability and want to learn things so the objective of the project is to provide a low cost device that will assist them in understanding the written text.

Project Implementation Method

The project is an automated virtual text reading system. It is totally based on upon a Raspberry Pi model 3B. The entire system is integrated with a camera module, Tesseract OCR (Optical Character Recognition) engine, an eSpeak TTS (TextTo-Speech) Synthesizer and a speaker and a GUI (Graphical User Interface). The camera module takes a picture when we  presses the button on the window of the GUI or the push button which is connected to the Raspberry Pi, the stored image is then fed to the OCR for character recognition. It attains the characters by carrying out some image processing algorithms such as denoising and also removing negative and positive spots. A LED (Light Emitting Diode) strip is fitted to the base so that there is enough lighting while taking the picture so that it helps to attain a luminous and clear image. It is for the user to check whether the page is being overexposed with light or any other case. The text extraction succeeds if the OCR process passes and document formatted file gets saved in the Pi from the initial picture formatted file. After the completion of the OCR process it later goes to the eSpeak TTS which reads out the text and gives out as an output through the speakers to the user.

Benefits of the Project

This research project has developed a technique on converting a text image directly to speech using Python and Raspberry Pi3 minicomputer. The hardware provides a portable and economical way of converting an image to text. Our method is more reliable than others as Tesseract OCR has an accuracy of 99% . We are trying to make this device on a helmet type cap so that one can easily wear it while reading the books.It ha also many benifits like

• People who can read English but cannot speak in English.
• People who have limited literacy.
• People suffering from a visual disability.
• People who are used to multitasking.
• People who have various learning types.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

In the final deliverable we will make a power supply of 5v and an amplifier/speaker and we will use the Raspberry pi to do all this work.Some other details are as follows:

• Algorithm

• Character & Word recognition (OCR)

• Character & Word  to Speech

• Sentence formation & speech conversion

• Power supply manufacture

• Interface circuits

• Speaker interface

• Graphical interface

Final Deliverable of the Project

HW/SW integrated system

Core Industry

Education

Other Industries

IT , Others

Core Technology

Others

Other Technologies

Wearables and Implantables

Sustainable Development Goals

Quality Education

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com