Assistive technologies for the visually impaired have evolved to facilitate interaction with a complex and dynamic world. In this paper, we introduce AIris, an AI-powered wearable device that provides environmental awareness and interaction capabilities to visually impaired users. AIris combines a sophisticated camera mounted on eyewear with a natural language processing interface, enabling users to receive real-time auditory descriptions of their surroundings. We have created a functional prototype system that operates effectively in real-world conditions. AIris demonstrates the ability to accurately identify objects and interpret scenes, providing users with a sense of spatial awareness previously unattainable with traditional assistive devices. The system is designed to be cost-effective and user-friendly, supporting general and specialized tasks: face recognition, scene description, text reading, object recognition, money counting, note-taking, and barcode scanning. AIris marks a transformative step, bringing AI enhancements to assistive technology, enabling rich interactions with a human-like feel.
@article{arxiv.2405.07606,
title = {AIris: An AI-powered Wearable Assistive Device for the Visually Impaired},
author = {Dionysia Danai Brilli and Evangelos Georgaras and Stefania Tsilivaki and Nikos Melanitis and Konstantina Nikita},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2405.07606},
year = {2024}
}