Development of a Standalone Color Identification Device to Support the Independence of the Visually-Impaired

There are many situations in our everyday lives where we make determinations based on color. Yellow and red are used to gain our attention, and blue and pink are often used to make gender distinctions. If the visually-impaired can easily come to understand color information, this will assist in their independence. From our survey, we learned that there are no teaching materials that teach colors at special education support schools. The purpose of this study is to develop, and spread the popularity of, a compact, and inexpensive identification device. We believe that the spread of such a color identification device will lead to improvements in the quality of life of those who live with visual impairment. We surveyed what users are looking for in terms of support devices, and determined the device specifications based on the survey results. The information obtained from color sensors includes RGB values, which we identified by converting the RGB color space into HSV color space. This method identifies colors from the values of hues applied from 0 to 360. The color identification device is comprised of a micro controller, color sensor, voice synthesis LSI, Bluetooth module, and battery module. In this study, we developed a sub-$100 device that can emit sound from the device speaker or via a smartphone using Bluetooth communication. The size of the device is such that it can fit into the hand of an elementary or middle school student, and when the button switch is pressed while the RGB sensor section is aimed at a target, the color is output from the speaker within the device (standalone type) or by a smartphone. It can recognize the five basic hues of the Munsell color system (red, yellow, green, blue (sky blue), and purple) and 10 neutral phases (red-yellow (orange), green-yellow, blue-green, blue-violet (blue), and red-purple (pink)). The speech from the internal speaker can be picked up clearly in a normal environment. In reading the RGB data, as the module LED lights up, the color can be identified without receiving any influence from external light. We gathered various items made from a variety of materials in which items appearing white or black and shades of other colors could be recognized, and investigated a method of identifying black and white by comparing the various hues, saturations, and values, as well as the amount of incidental light injected into the sensor.