Steve Mann, N1NLF
steve@media.mit.edu
MIT, Building E15-389, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge, MA02139
Author presently with University of Toronto,
Dept. Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Sandford Fleming Building, Room 2001,
Toronto, Canada, M5S 3G4
mann@eecg.toronto.edu
February 2, 1996
@techreport{mann-aaai,
author = "Mann, Steve",
title = "{\bf Wearable, tetherless computer--mediated reality}:
{WearCam} as a wearable face--recognizer,
and other applications for the disabled",
institution = "M.I.T. M.L. PerCom Tech Report 361;
Also appears in {\bf AAAI Fall Symposium on
Developing Assistive Technology for People with Disabilities},
9-11 November 1996, MIT; http://wearcam.org/vmp.htm",
type = "TR",
number = "361",
address = "Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts",
month = "February 2",
year = 1996
}
Abstract:
`WearCam', a wearable multimedia system with
video processing capability and wireless Internet connection,
has recently been proposed[1].
In this paper, WearCam is presented as a prosthetic device.
In particular, two example applications:
the `personal visual assistant';
and the `visual memory prosthetic' are described.
The `personal visual assistant' embodies
a spatial visual filter[2]
that reconfigures the human visual
system, providing a coordinate transformation (remapping of
spatial coordinates).
Such coordinate transformations, it is hoped,
might someday be of use to the partially sighted.
The `visual memory prosthetic[3]'
embodies a temporal visual filter
that provides computer-induced flashbacks
(possibly together with annotation). These `flashbacks' currently help
the author overcome visual amnesia.
It is hoped that, with further research, the apparatus and approach
might someday lead to perceptual intelligence that we can wear,
and be of great benefit to the disabled.