Patent Application
20090110271
The present invention relates to a color recognition device, and more particularly to a color recognition device for the color blind people.
According to the statistical data, about 10% of the total global population are slightly or seriously color blind people. Most of them are red-green color blind. The biggest difficulty for the color blind is their inability to drive a car, because the color blind can not distinguish the red, yellow, and green traffic signals.
There are three kinds of color light sensitive cone cells in human retina, so the human eyes can distinguish colors. These three kinds of cone cells can absorb the lights with different wavelength range, i.e. “blue”, “green” and “red” basic color lights, respectively. When some kinds of cone cells are damaged or grow improperly, the color blindness may occur.
There are color blindness rectification glasses available in the market. The principle of these glasses is to form the optical coating on these glasses to generate the wavelength cut-off effect, i.e. the filtration of some specific color light. For the example of the red-green blindness, these color blindness rectification glasses can transmit the long wavelength light (red light) and reflect the short wavelength light (blue light). That is to say, almost all red light will pass through the color blindness rectification glasses, while most blue light will be reflected by the color blindness rectification glasses, and only a small amount of blue light can pass through the color blindness rectification glasses. Since the red-green blind people have the low sensitivity to red light and high sensitivity to blue light, therefore the red light with relatively high intensity after passing the color blindness rectification glasses can reach the balancing of the three basic colors sensed by the user so that he or she may distinguish the colors.
However such color blindness rectification glasses have several drawbacks. First, since a large portion of light has been filtered out (for instance, most blue light and part of green light), thus the total light intensity is greatly reduced. Moreover, the red-green blind people have low sensitivity to red light, even though the intensity of the red light is high. Actually, the light after passing through the color blindness rectification glasses and being sensed by the red-green blind people is several-times weaker than that sensed by the normal people without the color blindness rectification glasses. Consequently, the images may not be clearly seen in a cloudy day due to the weakly sensed light for a color blind person wearing the color blindness rectification glasses. It is dangerous when driving a car in this situation. Besides, the color blindness rectification glasses only work for slight color blind people and become invalid for serious color blind people. For example, it is hard for the serious red-green color blind people to sense the red light no matter how strong the adjusted red light intensity is, because the color blindness rectification glasses just filter out the blue light to achieve a color balancing only.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the new concepts and resolution method are proposed in the present invention, which is able to help the serious color blind people to easily distinguish the colors and the traffic signals. The present invention is described below.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a color recognition device for color blind people is provided. The color recognition device of the present invention is easy to be carried or worn and able to help color blind people to distinguish the colors, specially the colors of the traffic signals to avoid the possible danger.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a color recognition device is provided. The color recognition device includes a color image sensor, an image processing system, and a projection device. The color image sensor senses a color image having an image area with a specific color, and generates a first electrical signal corresponding to the color image. The image processing system receives the first electrical signal, modifies the color image, and generates a second electrical signal. The projection device receives the second electrical signal, and projects a modified image corresponding to the second electrical signal.
Preferably, the color image sensor is worn on a head of a user.
Preferably, the color recognition is worn on a head of a user.
Preferably, the color image sensor includes one of a complementary metal oxide semiconductor and a charge coupled device.
Preferably, the image processing system includes a field programmable gate array.
Preferably, the modified image has a modified image area corresponding to the image area with the specific color, and the modified image area is displayed by flashing.
Preferably, the modified image has a modified image area corresponding to the image area with the specific color, and a light intensity of the modified image area is increased.
Preferably, the projection device includes a projection component of a liquid crystal on silicon.
Preferably, the projection device includes a projection component of a liquid crystal display.
Preferably, the projection device includes a projection component having a plurality of mirrors made by a method of micro-electro-mechanical system.
Preferably, the modified image is projected on an image display device containing a semi-transparent and semi-reflective lens.
Preferably, the modified image is projected on an image display device containing a semi-transparent and semi-reflective beam splitter.
In accordance with a further aspect of the present invention, a method of color recognition is provided. The method includes steps of sensing a color image having an image area with a specific color to generate a first electronic signal corresponding to the color image, modifying the first electronic signal to generate a second electronic signal for creating a modified image, and projecting the modified image.
Preferably, the modified image has a modified image area corresponding to the image area with the specific color, and the second electronic signal keeps the modified image area flashing.
Preferably, the modified image has a modified image area corresponding to the image area with the specific color, and the second electronic signal increases a light intensity of the modified image area.
Preferably, the method further includes a step of transmitting the second electronic signal to a projection device for projecting the modified image.
Preferably, the projection device includes a projection component being one selected from a group consisting of a liquid crystal on silicon, a liquid crystal display, and a component having a plurality of mirrors made by a method of micro-electro-mechanical system.
Preferably, the modified image is projected on an image display device for a user to view the color image and the modified image simultaneously.
Preferably, the modified image is projected on an image display device for a user to view only the modified image.
In accordance with further another aspect of the present invention, a color highlighting device including a color image sensor, an image processing system, and a projecting device is provided. The color image sensor senses a color image having an image area with a specific color. The image processing system modifies the color image and generates a modified image, which has a highlighted image area corresponding to the image area with the specific color. The projecting device projects the modified image.
The above objects and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art after reviewing the following detailed descriptions and accompanying drawings, in which:
The present invention will now be described more specifically with reference to the following embodiments. It is to be noted that the following descriptions of preferred embodiments of this invention are presented herein for the purposes of illustration and description only; it is not intended to be exhaustive or to be limited to the precise form disclosed.
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The sensing chip of the color image sensor 12 can be a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) or a charge coupled device (CCD) or other types of the chromatic light sensing chips. In this embodiment, a CMOS chip with 1.3 million pixels is utilized in the color image sensor 12. Certainly, the light sensing chip with other appropriate pixel quantity can be chosen according to the actual requirements and the user's need. The content of the first electronic signal generated by the color image sensor 12 can contain the dynamic information of the color, e.g. chromatic coordinates, and the light intensity in each specific time frame for each pixel.
The image processing system 14 modifies the image area(s) with a specific color, for example red color, in the color image coded in the first electronic signal, and then generates the second electronic signal. This modification can be accomplished by using the field programmable gate array (FPGA) to keep the image area with a specific color flashing on its edge or on its whole area, or to increase the light intensity of the image area with a specific color, or to do both simultaneously. Then the image information after the modification is coded into a second electronic signal, such as an electronic file with a picture format.
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For instance, the red-green color blind people may clearly see the image, but can hardly distinguish the red and green colors. Therefore the red-green color blind people can not recognize whether the red traffic signal is turned on, and possibly may be in danger. If the red-green color blind person wears the color recognition device 100 of the present invention, he or she can tell whether the light with a specific color, e.g. red light, is turned on, by seeing whether the position of the traffic signal is flashing from the image display device 30. Therefore the red-green color blind people can avoid the possible danger by wearing the color recognition devices 100, when driving cars or crossing the street, and this is a great benefit for those people.
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Since both the color image sensor 12 and the image processing system 14 are adopted in both this embodiment and the first embodiment, the user can still see the modified image to recognize whether there is any area with a specific color in the modified image.
From the above description, a color recognition device and a color recognition method for the color blind people are provided in the present invention. The color image sensor can catch the instant color image and generate the electronic signal. The image processing system can modify the image area(s) with a specific color in the color image to allow the area(s) to be displayed by the ways of flashing, etc. The projection device can project the instant image after the modification on the image display device. The user can see the modified image from the image display device and tell whether there is any area with a specific color in the color image, based on whether there is any area flashing. The present invention provides a great advantage for the color blind people to distinguish the traffic signals and to avoid the possible danger. Moreover, it is easy to carry and convenient to use the color recognition device of the present invention for the color blind people.
While the invention has been described in terms of what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention needs not be limited to the disclosed embodiments. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims which are to be accorded with the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar structures.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 96141105 | Oct 2007 | TW | national |
