Patent ID: 6948937

Claim:
A device allowing blind or visually impaired people to read books, documents and other objects carrying printed text, located nearby or at a distance, the device comprising: a digital camera including at least the following: color sensor with at least 4 million active pixels, variable focal length lens providing an angular field of view from 20 to 60 degrees when focused at infinity, automatic lens focusing from infinity to 30 cm for a maximum focal length and to 4 cm for a minimum focal length, automatic exposure adjustment, automatic adjustment of the color balance, real time conversion of electrical data to an LCD display and into video standard video signals, digital processor performing the real time conversion, communication port for data transfer from and to the camera, video signal output port, digital processor for performing compression of images into standard formats and conversion to different resolutions, random access memory of a size allowing storage of data required for image data processing, non-volatile memory allowing storage of software required for image data processing and camera controls, user replaceable non-volatile memory allowing storage of at least one raw image at the camera maximum resolution, electronic flash light with automatic exposure control for object illumination in low light conditions, microphone, loudspeaker and analog to digital, digital to analog and amplifications circuits, user replaceable batteries allowing the operation of the camera for several hours, electronic converters and regulators providing appropriate voltage and power to electric elements of the camera, control device for controlling of camera functions by the user, image centering by one of tactile and sound information, optical recognition of characters contained in an image, conversion of recognized text into at least one of synthetic speech and grade one or grade two Braille, positioning of a reading cursor anywhere inside documents recognized and temporarily stored in the memory, processing of raw images provided by the camera to allow the transfer of at least selected image parts to a tactile graphic array, to allow blind users to apprehend graphic elements of the raw images, and control of the camera functions by electrical signals provided by recognition of commands spoken by the user.