VisualEyez – Assisting The Visually Impaired with Barbadian Banknote Detection
Adrian A. Als, Tizelia Norville, Roshawn Layne · 2023
The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness's Vision Atlas reports that there are 1.1 billion people globally with vision loss and this is expected to rise to 1.7 billion by 2050. Moreover, much of this vision loss is driven by inequality with higher rates occurring in low- and middle-income countries such as those within the Caribbean region. Four percent of the Barbadian population is estimated to be visually impaired (VI) and of this, one percent is totally blind. Although this is a small percentage, it represents over ten thousand people who have the right to live independently in an inclusive society. Until December 05, 2022, this right was inhibited by the lack of a mechanism for members of the VI community to distinguish among the various local banknotes. The introduction of unique tactile symbols on each denomination was welcomed by the community. However, as the older notes are still widely circulated, the issue persists. VisualEyez, an artificial intelligence (AI) mobile application was developed to address the matter. This application identifies the different denominations of Barbadian banknotes and communicates the detected value using either speech or vibration modes. In this work, the Systems Usability Survey (SUS) instrument was employed on a purposive sample of 6 members from the Barbados Association for the Blind and Deaf (BABD) to quantify the user experience (UX). Results showed an average rating of 79.6 which indicates that users are very satisfied with the application. Speech was the generally preferred operating mode, with vibration mode being preferred in public spaces. This research shows that the VisualEyez application will be beneficial to those who are blind or visually impaired.