Videophones: Useful Assistive Devices for Visually Impaired Persons?

Abstract

Videophones for people with visual impairments may sound like a contradiction of terms. In the “eye-phone” pilot project, our idea was to use the videophone as a communication channel to a sighted eye. An important question therefore was: What is the need for the human eye today and in the future? Visually impaired people have different expectations and needs, but when do they really need access to a sighted eye? Can existing information technology and dedicated devices solve most of the daily needs for blind and partially sighted persons, or do videophones offer new and/or better solutions to some of these needs? The “eye-phone” concept is selected to demonstrate a complete system: videophones and a sighted operator. The operators are usually located in a central, but the sighted person may instead be a personal reading assistant.