Homebrew code lets the blind use PSP to identify people

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.

[Via PSP Fanboy]

[J.P. @ Oct 23rd 2007 8:48AM]

This is awesome. I always love seeing people turn ordinary devices into assistive technology. As far as I know, I haven't even *seen* a commercial product that does this, and if there was, it would almost definitely cost *way* more than a PSP!

-- J.P.

[John Stracke @ Oct 23rd 2007 9:15AM]

Using something with a built-in camera would make more sense--say, a phone, or a Nokia N800. More expensive, but not a lot more.

[FK @ Oct 23rd 2007 12:43PM]

I guess you should go ahead and write one then since its so simple.

[ssuk @ Oct 23rd 2007 2:58PM]

He said 'makes more sense'... I don't believe he refered to anything here as being 'simple' or easy in any way. Good job.

But anyway, the PSP's eyeToy thingy-me-bob works just as good as an intergrated camera, so what's your complaint here?

[John Stracke @ Oct 23rd 2007 3:17PM]

"But anyway, the PSP's eyeToy thingy-me-bob works just as good as an intergrated camera, so what's your complaint here?" -- It's extra complicated when you have to plug in an external piece. Plus, it's just bigger; while the PSP does fit in a (large) pocket, I don't think it would with the camera attached. What's really wanted is something that you can pull out and use immediately.

I suppose most cellphones wouldn't the computrons to handle the image processing needed. The N800 could probably do it, though; its CPU is about the same speed as the PSP (400MHz ARM instead of 333MHz MIPS).

Plus, the N800 doesn't have DRM keeping you from installing your own software. For this application, that could be a deciding factor.

None of this is to belittle what Battaglia did; squeezing image recognition down into an embedded CPU is extraordinary. I just think a good next step would be putting it into a more portable device.