Wearable ring to read characters

FingerReader is a ring type device that can act like a second eye that allows you to read letters and colors with your fingers. The University of Auckland, New Zealand, and the Augmented Human Lab have teamed up with MIT to make use of state-of-the-art technology to make them accessible for the visually impaired.

It is a wearable device consisting of a camera-shaped ring and a wristwatch-type body connected to it. It reads letters and colors through the ring inserted in the fingers and outputs the result as a voice immediately.

Currently, there are about 285 million people with visual impairments ranging from amblyopia to blindness. Unlike normal people, reading letters such as shopping, ordering restaurants, counting money or reading newspapers is exposed to an environment that is inevitably a challenge. The blind assist devices that have been available so far have often been expensive or fail to perform as expected. However, FingerReader was developed to investigate the needs of the blind and caregivers.

The research team is working to make products for low-cost use so that people with visual disabilities can use them independently. Although it is still in its infancy, performance continues to rise over time as camera or open source performance continues to improve. For more information, please click here .