Homebrew code allows the BLIND to use the PSP to identify people

[Hard core Rikki]

Grabbed from enGadget

Homebrew code lets the blind use PSP to identify people - Engadget

Hackers of all kinds continue to be drawn to the PSP, and the latest piece of code to bring a frowny-face to Sony's attorneys will probably bring a smile to lots of other people, as Nanodesktop Blind Assistant from Italy's Filippo Battaglia uses a webcam to identify and locate people in a room. The code is still proof-of-concept and requires a PC to serve images, but developers are working on USB camera support and promise the next version will be "official" and "fully working" -- which makes us wonder if they've seen that internal camera hack. Sadly, there's no word on when that next version is due to hit, but interested parties can download the current build at the read link.

[RELEASE] Nanodesktop Blind Assistant 0.1 Proof of concept


This is an important news. The release of the next version of nd will
arrive in few days, and it will be correlated with new applications and
a better documentation for all developers.

In this time, you can try this version of Nanodesktop Blind Assistant 0.1.

Blind Assistant is a technology developed in Visilab Research Center
of University of Messina - Italy, by Filippo Battaglia.

It is a program that uses PSP for help blind children or blind men. This
program is able to recognizes the name of the people that are present
in that moment in the room. In the future, we'll release more complex
version of the program, with a better speed of recognition and with
network support, and support for GPS and collision avoidance.

The program uses new tecnologies that will be available in nd 0.3.2,
the next version of nd, as the engine of Vocal Synthesis ndFLite,
developed by Carnegie Mellon University, the tecnology PentLand PCA
EigenFaces developed by Intel (ndOpenCV libraries), the NanoC, the
NanoTile accelerator and the EMI mathematical acceleration developed
by Filippo Battaglia.

The homebrew is available here:

RapidShare: 1-Click Webhosting

It is only a proof of concept of the program: some menu items don't work
and it is normal. The speed is not optimized yet. It is only to understand
what the program is able to do.

If you want to use Blind Assistant, you have to download Eyeserver
from Visilab website:

Nanodesktop - Eyeserver - Official site

Install Eyeserver on PC with a webcam (this is a temporaneus solution,
we are working on GoCam support for PSP), and copy the driver
ndUsbDriver.Prx on your memory stick.

After, copy the directory BLINDASSISTANT that is in the zip
BlindAssistant-POC01.zip
in the root folder of the memory stick. Install also the
application (EBOOT.PBP) in your PSP.

Remember that Blind Assistant requires a PSP-FAT with fw 1.50
or a FAT with CF and 1.50 emulation.

After, run Eyeserver on PC, connect a webcam to the PC and
connect the PSP to a second USB port.

Start BlindAssistant. The BA-core will reconfigure automatically your
memory stick. If it says that it is unable to connect with the camera,
you can try to detach and after attach the PSP USB connect to PC,
and after you can choose Retry in the error wizard.

If it is all ok, you could see your image on the screen of PSP.
Choose a slot. It will appear a wizard that will guide you in the
training of the system. Blind Assistant needs 4 faces for person
to do a good analysis of the features of a face.

Try to do training with two people of your family: when you complete,
Nanodesktop will generate the new vocal samples and it will register
them on your memory stick. After, you'll hear EAS (Envelope Audio
Support) that executes these samples without using of CPU.

The PSP could be able to recognize where the people that are
subjects of the trainings are in the room and it could say where are.

Remember that, if you stop the program and if you restart it,
Nanodesktop will recall automatically all informations you have
registered during the training phase.

Good, now I'll return to work with the next version of nd.
You'll have other informations soon.


***
N.B. This version of Blind Assistant is released **ONLY** as proof-
of-concept. With the next version of our site, we'll release an
official version that is fully working
***

Thanks for the attention.
Filippo Battaglia

I dont know about you guys, but I myself feel obliged to have one or two genuflections in the general direction of the PSP homebrew people.

Now THAT's some very cool helpful function Sony would've never brought to PSP owners, be them blind or perfect-sighted...

[MiretanK]

AWESOME, good to see homebrew coming to this way!

[grfla]

I'm not sure I get it - why did that researcher guy use a psp (and require it to be cracked, from what I understand?) instead of a dedicated device? Just for the "Oh my god homebrew" effect?

[firyace]

Nope, its that dedicated hardware is harder to do and its more expensive. Compare to building hardware from the ground up, using existing hardware is easier. This would be good to people in need as the hardware is easier to be obtained and it wouldn't cost a fortune for them to have an equipment with the same functionality.

Its good to see that the homebrew community does something for the society itself.

[Hard core Rikki]

Originally Posted by firyace

dedicated hardware is harder to do and more expensive.

Nevermind the price, there's already a big userbase that could already benefit from this. When all your family members get recognized, you cant really help but have a genuflection in this case...

[Coolsvilleman]

Its a shame that psp doesn't have webcam built in. Though this is really cool if it works as well as it says. Though you kinda gotta think, if they are blind they probably don't own a PSP and would have to go buy one to use this software. Also blind people usually don't have problems recognizing people if they have been blind their entire life.