hongcheng79/tactile_patterns repository overview

⁠Photo to Tactile Image Converter

This is a collaborative project between MLT (Suzana Ilic, John Lau) and Prof. Tune Kamae, a former physics professor (University of Tokyo, Stanford University) who has been engaged for years in supporting, teaching and creating learning resources for visually impaired and blind people. MLT is supporting his efforts.

The goal of this project is to convert photo to Tactile Image⁠ that can be printed with Tactile Printer on Swell Paper to assist visually impaired person in seeing the photo.

This project is done as part of the Machine Learning Tokyo⁠ activities AI for Social Good. Currently we have built a simple prototype that will get deployed as a web application as the next step.

⁠Example: Input image and output patterns

⁠After thermo-printing

Blind people are testing the tactile patterns representing the original image.

⁠Photo Credits

• Jessica A Paje, https://en.japantravel.com/tokyo/tokyo-station-celebrates-100-years/17770⁠.
• https://travel.gaijinpot.com/tokyo-tower/⁠
• https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tokyo_Skytree_2014_%E2%85%A2.jpg⁠
• https://www.jinjyagoshuin.com/entry/wakabayashiinari⁠
• http://www.studio-mario.jp/event/family/⁠
• https://bit.ly/2Z6HokG⁠

⁠References

• Tactile Images Give Visually Impaired Access To Earth From The Air⁠.
• Ford's Feel the View smart window lets blind passengers enjoy the landscape⁠.
• 3D-printed display lets blind people explore images by touch⁠.
• Tactile Graphics⁠.