Consideraciones históricas sobre el sistema braille / Historical Considerations on the Braille System

El sistema braille no es solo una técnica de escritura adaptada para ciegos, es el sistema gracias al cual estos pueden guiar, instruir, educar, aprender, conectar con el entorno y recibir toda información escrita. Se realizó una búsqueda sistemática en la literatura científica, con el fin de localizar artículos y publicaciones sobre la técnica de escritura adaptada para ciegos. El objetivo fue exponer aspectos relacionados con el desarrollo histórico del sistema braille y su valor como medio de comunicación. Lo que permitirá ampliar los conocimientos sobre este sistema de comunicación de las personas invidentes, para estimular y promover su inclusión en todos los ámbitos de la sociedad(AU)

The braille system is not only a writing technique adapted for the blind, it is the system thanks to which they can guide, instruct, educate, learn, connect with the environment and receive all written information. A systematic search of the scientific literature was carried out in order to locate articles and publications on the adapted writing technique for the blind. The objective was to expose aspects related to the historical development of the Braille system and its value as a means of communication. This will allow to expand the knowledge about this system of communication for blind people, in order to stimulate and promote their inclusion in all areas of society(AU)

Automatic Object Detection Algorithm-Based Braille Image Generation System for the Recognition of Real-Life Obstacles for Visually Impaired People.

The global prevalence of visual impairment due to diseases and accidents continues to increase. Visually impaired individuals rely on their auditory and tactile senses to recognize surrounding objects. However, accessible public facilities such as tactile pavements and tactile signs are installed only in limited areas globally, and visually impaired individuals use assistive devices such as canes or guide dogs, which have limitations. In particular, the visually impaired are not equipped to face unexpected situations by themselves while walking. Therefore, these situations are becoming a great threat to the safety of the visually impaired. To solve this problem, this study proposes a living assistance system, which integrates object recognition, object extraction, outline generation, and braille conversion algorithms, that is applicable both indoors and outdoors. The smart glasses guide objects in real photos, and the user can detect the shape of the object through a braille pad. Moreover, we built a database containing 100 objects on the basis of a survey to select objects frequently used by visually impaired people in real life to construct the system. A performance evaluation, consisting of accuracy and usefulness evaluations, was conducted to assess the system. The former involved comparing the tactile image generated on the basis of braille data with the expected tactile image, while the latter confirmed the object extraction accuracy and conversion rate on the basis of the images of real-life situations. As a result, the living assistance system proposed in this study was found to be efficient and useful with an average accuracy of 85% a detection accuracy of 90% and higher, and an average braille conversion time of 6.6 s. Ten visually impaired individuals used the assistance system and were satisfied with its performance. Participants preferred tactile graphics that contained only the outline of the objects, over tactile graphics containing the full texture details.