In today's society, where independent living is becoming increasingly important, it can be extremely constricting for those who are blind. Blind and visually impaired (BVI) people face challenges because they need manual support to prompt information about their environment. In this work, we took our first step towards developing an affordable and high-performing eye wearable assistive device, DRISHTI, to provide visual navigation assistance for BVI people. This system comprises a camera module, ESP32 processor, Bluetooth module, smartphone and speakers. Using artificial intelligence, this system is proposed to detect and understand the nature of the users' path and obstacles ahead of the user in that path and then inform BVI users about it via audio output to enable them to acquire directions by themselves on their journey. This first step discussed in this paper involves establishing a proof-of-concept of achieving the right balance of affordability and performance by testing an initial software integration of a currency detection algorithm on a low-cost embedded arrangement. This work will lay the foundation for our upcoming works toward achieving the goal of assisting the maximum of BVI people around the globe in moving independently.

本文介绍了一种名为DRISHTI的新型可穿戴助听设备，它由摄像头模块、ESP32处理器、蓝牙模块、智能手机和扬声器组成，利用人工智能检测和了解用户路径以及路径前方的障碍物，然后通过语音输出向视障用户提供导航帮助，旨在实现视障人士的自主行动。该设备的低成本和高效性证明了其可行性。

DRISHTI：视障人士的视觉导航助手