Patent ID: 6055048
Filing Date: 2000-04-25
Classification: A61F,A61H

Abstract:
An optical-to-tactile translator for interpreting a near-field scene and communicating a tactile signal to a user based on said near-field scene comprising:an optical sensor to obtain said near-field scene and generate a visual interpretation signal corresponding to said near-field scene;a tactile transmitter adapted to transmit a tactile shape signal to the user; anda microprocessor in communication with said optical sensor for receiving said visual interpretation signal from said optical sensor, and based on said received visual interpretation signal, performing gray-scale development and edge enhancement on said received visual interpretation signal, generating said tactile shape corresponding to said edge enhanced visual interpretation signal, communicating said tactile shape signal to said tactile transmitter, and further commanding said tactile transmitter to transmit the tactile shape signal to the user.