How can robots help people with disabilities

People with disabilities are contributing to research and design for countless technology advances. Autonomous vehicles, industrial robots and robotic vacuum cleaners all rely on computer vision. This has been a long-standing challenge in the scientific community. According to Engadget , computers can now match or exceed human sight, but they still require intense training to understand the images they see.

MIT professor Dr. Pawan Sinha developed a new machine learning technique that was inspired by his work with blind children in India. Sinha started Project Prakash , a charity that provides eye surgery to children with treatable conditions such as congenital cataracts.

Restoring sight to children with cataracts is more complicated than older patients because of brain development. Healthy babies are born with blurry vision, which gradually improves as they age. He applied this concept to artificial intelligence by integrating blurry imagery into an artificial intelligence system to help it gradually understand high-resolution images. This branch of artificial intelligence is helping give people with disabilities more independence. The latest machine learning algorithms can understand images, sounds and language.

This software is being used to improve healthcare technology for people with disabilities like deafness or autism. Closed captioning, for example, helps convey speed and sounds on TV shows and videos. YouTube uses speech-to-text software to automatically transcribe videos. But they also take it a step further by using algorithms that indicate additional sounds, such as applause, laughter and music. Please consider supporting us by becoming a paying subscriber, or through advertising and sponsorships, or by purchasing products and services through our shop — or a combination of all of the above.

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