Camera Mouse for visually impaired

January 6, 2008
By Syed Akbar
Visakhapatnam, Jan 5: A city professor has developed a Camera Mouse that will aid people with low or impaired vision to read even fine prints and verify the genuineness of currency notes and bank drafts.
Prof MS Raju, an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, has displayed his Camera Mouse at the 95th Indian Science Congress being held here. This simple equipment that costs less than Rs 2000 has been specially designed for the vision impaired persons. Prof Raju has patented the invention and won financial support from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research under Technopreneurs Promotion Programme.
Using the Camera Mouse, people with low vision and senior citizens can read newspapers and magazines and view photographs. It is equally good for partially blind persons.
“It is also a valuable magnification and illumination tool that can help normal persons scrutinize documents/objects with magnification up to 20 times in true colour and proportions. Unlike scanners and web cams, this device will not distort the image or quality,” says Prof Raju.
The Camera Mouse can be easily attached to a television set and scroll over the object to be read. It catches the picture and displays it on the TV set. There’s no need for a computer.
Low vision persons may not be able to see objects even from close because the visual information that goes into their brain get restricted due to defective cornea, retina or optic nerve. “There are three methods to enhance visual information going into the brain. The Camera Mouse utilises illumination, magnification and contract to provide a good quality and large print on the TV screen,” he says.
If the user has a large screen TV, the image is further enhanced. With a suitable contract created in the TV set, helpful contrasted images can be obtained.
The Camera Mouse uses a high quality continuous rated miniature movie camera that gives a video feed to any ordinary TV. The wired-in advanced technology power unit has circuit that adjusts itself automatically to the supply power and maintains sharpness and brightness. Since it works on a low voltage DC it is safe for handheld use.