This post is a about vision enhancement platform called The All-Seeing Pi that I have been working on with my friend Dan, who is blind. People who are blind rarely have no vision at all though, and in Dan's case, he still has a little bit of sight in one eye. He's also the first to tell you how much technology can do to enable mobility.
From these discussions, we came up with the idea for a video feed connected to a display, with a wearable screen in the ideal spot for maximum vision. This allows someone to focus on just the screen, and let the camera capture the detail and depth of the environment.
In the end, the prototype served as a successful proof of concept. Checkout the video above for a field test and some more discussion! Dan also likes to push the limits of what can be done with his disability, which he chronicles at his blog Three Points of Contact.
In the rest of this post, I'll be talking about how to build the device. This may be useful if you or a friend have a similar condition, but it is also a great starting platform for a Raspberry Pi based augmented reality rig. The general setup is a raspberry pi with a camera module running on an HDMI (not SPI!) small display. The video feed is provided via OpenCV and RaspiCam, with code and install details below.