Enabling visually impaired patients to read without barriers

The 8th National Congress of the China Disabled Persons' Federation opened in Beijing a few days ago. For a long time, the Party and the state have attached great importance to the cause of the disabled. Especially in the past five years, my country has fully guaranteed the basic livelihood of the disabled, vigorously improved the quality of life of the disabled, and promoted the all-round development of the disabled.

The construction of barrier-free environment is a powerful measure to protect the rights and interests of people with disabilities, and it is also a symbol of a country and social civilization. The Law of the People's Republic of China on the Construction of Barrier-Free Environment will be officially implemented on September 1. When it comes to the construction of barrier-free environment, many people will immediately think of building better blind path facilities to allow more visually impaired patients to integrate into society more quickly. So, what causes visual impairment? Can visually impaired patients read barrier-free?

Visually impaired patients are divided into four levels

Visual impairment refers to a partial or complete disorder in the structure or function of the visual organs due to congenital or acquired reasons, and the inability or difficulty to visually identify external objects after treatment. Visually impaired patients are divided into four levels according to their vision level: level one is no light perception to light perception less than 0.02, level two is light perception 0.02 to light perception less than 0.05, level three is light perception 0.05 to light perception less than 0.1, and level four is light perception 0.1 to light perception less than 0.3. Among them, level one is the most serious among the levels of visual impairment. The causes of visual impairment include congenital, acquired, and rare diseases, among which common causes include refractive errors, cataracts, and retinal damage caused by diabetes.

We may think that total blindness means that the patient's eyes are completely dark and he can't see anything. In fact, some totally blind people can still distinguish between night and day through light perception. But there are also some blind people whose visual sensory nerves are inoperative. It's not that their eyes can't see, but that their brains can't process visual information.

Research shows that the brain receives external information through the five senses every day, with taste accounting for 1%, touch 1.5%, smell 3.5%, hearing 11%, and vision 83%. The information received by the eyes is four times the total of the information received by hearing, smell, touch, and taste.

According to the "Basic Information Survey of Visually Impaired People" published by Times Data, 30% of the visually impaired go out more than 4 times a week, 40% go out 1-3 times a week, and 30% rarely go out. Through this distribution, we can feel that the way visually impaired people gain knowledge in learning and life is difficult and limited.

"Angel Eye" makes barrier-free reading a reality

Although visually impaired patients can read Braille books, the production process of such books is complicated and the publishing cycle is relatively long. A set of Braille books is several times more expensive than ordinary books with the same content. In addition, the paper of Braille books is large. A Braille version of an elementary school Chinese textbook is as thick as a dictionary.

Is there any way to effectively solve the problem of barrier-free reading for visually impaired patients? Of course there is. For example, the black technology "Angel Eyes" in the library, which look similar to ordinary sunglasses, can collect information about objects in front of it with the help of computer vision and artificial intelligence technology, and convert it into voice signals, which are transmitted to the ears of visually impaired patients through headphones.

In the field of medical technology, electronic eyes are no longer unfamiliar. By simulating the optic nerve pathway through a potential matrix, visually impaired patients with intact optic nerves can see information captured and recorded by photosensitive elements. Although this technology has been used and continuously optimized, it has not yet been popularized due to factors such as cost, technology, and the human brain's own mechanism.

In today's era of rapid technological development, we all hope that technology will not only illuminate our lives, but also the lives of these visually impaired patients.

(The author is a member of the science popularization team of Beijing Academy of Science and Technology and a scientific and technological worker of Beijing Science Press Co., Ltd.)