Social Network Framework for Deaf and Blind People based on Cloud Computing

1. Social Network Framework for Deaf and Blind People based on Cloud Computing • Tarek Gaber • Dept. of Computer Science, • Faculty of Computers and Informatics, • Suez Canal University • Member of the Scientific Research Group in Egypt • http://www.egyptscience.net Fedcsis2013- Krakow- Poland. September 08 – September 11,2013

2. Agenda • Introduction • Problem definition • Aim • Proposed framework • Blind mode • Deaf mode • SoNetDBlue mode • Problem challenges • Arabic Sign Language • Security Issues • Conclusion and future works Fedcsis2013- Krakow- Poland. September 08 – September 11,2013

3. Introduction • Around 285 million people around the world are visually impaired • Around 360 million of the worldwide population have disabling hearing loss • Lack of awareness of the blind/deaf needs could lead to discrimination in a single community.

4. Introduction Cont. • About 6% of the total Egyptian population are visually impaired • Nearly 3 million people in Egypt suffer from hearing impairment, • Few IT projects attempting to help disabled people to develop their social skills and to integrate in the community: • ViZWiZ and Disablitinet.com

5. Problem Definition • According to our knowledge, no proposed system for connecting blind and deaf people within direct Arabic language-based conversations. • Providing these people with a way allowing them to seamlessly communicate with each other and with normal people is of a great the value to the entire community

6. Can Modern Technologies Help?

7. Social Networks for Blind People • Similar to famous and regular social networks. • Constructed to facilitate the interaction and communication among the subscribers. • Special features including audio and media contents. • Examples: • http://www.disabilinet.com/ • http://theblinduniverse.com/ • http://www.disabledcommunity.net/ Disadvantages: Isolation and sociological problems.

8. Existed Mobile App. for Blind Users • Mobile device is a portable eye that describes and recognizes objects or people who are naturally invisible for them. • VizWiz: Crowd sourcing (e.g. employees) and Mobile Q&A. • A number of employees (i.e. crowdsourcing) answer the audio questions related to a photo taken by their mobiles (i.e. Mobile Q&A). • VizWiz Social: Free, Social (friends) and automated object recognition.

9. Weakness of Current Mobile app. • VizWiz: • It is not a free service • Does not support any automated process for recognizing the captured photos. • VizWiz Social: • Picture obscurity and the inaccurate results received • Delay to receive a result, up to a full day • Privacy issues when sharing their data and photos online

10. Other Solutions • Other work integrate special glasses with mobile devices through Bluetooth technology to allow blind users to identify objects and navigate directions • This integration enhances the accuracy of the obtained results. • Weaknesses • Only focused on the navigation problem

11. Weaknesses in Existed Solutions • Overlooking Arabic language • Communicating deaf with blind has not addressed in any solutions • Interactions emotions and feelings of both the blinds and their peers have not been considered

12. Aim Design and develop an IT system to support a seamless communication among blind, deaf and normal people in Egypt that should help them to gain better social skills for a more successful life.

13. Our Solution • Clouding Computing • To speed up the process of object recognition. • To obtain an accurate results within the matching process. • Mobile Device • Android and iOS based devices • Come with integrated speech recognition and text-to-speech engines • Integrated Camera • Time-of-Light Camera: a new technology used in real-time three-dimensional imaging • To be worn by blind users (an eye-level placement) that will help them to easily capture context-relevant pictures

14. Proposed Framework

15. Blind Mode Blind Mode

16. Deaf Mode

17. SoNetBDBlue Website • SoNetDBlueis an architecture to connect deaf and blind people with their cycle of friends (with or without disabilities) anywhere and at any time. • Use case • Post text/audio messages • Find/call nearest friends • Identify objects/Arabic text

18. Problem Challenges • Dealing with the Arabic language • American Sign Language has accomplished an accuracy of 98% while the best result of the ArSL is 90.55 % • ArSL does not have a documentation system which could be utilized while building a translation corpus. • It is not hand/finger spelling of the Arabic alphabet.

19. Problem Challenges • Security issues • Privacy issues • Our system aims to help a blind user to get a specific location using GPS which threats the user’s privacy • Captured videos would disclose lots of information about the places visited • Authentication • Password for sighted people is not convenient way to protect accessing mobile • Blind needs more convenient method to authenticate themselves to their mobile

20. Conclusion • A Mobile-Cloud framework is presented to help people with visual impairments to gain better social skills that are important for healthy and successful life. • The framework is structured to bridge the communication gap between the blind and deaf persons • The paper showed how several technologies and methodologies including social networks which can be integrated to recognize all possible obstacles and persons to assist the blind people to feeling and visualizing the surroundings.

21. Thanks and Acknowledgement http://www.egyptscience.net Authors Mahmoud ElGayyar, Hany ElYamany, Tarek Gaber, and Aboul Ella Hassanien Fedcsis2013- Krakow- Poland. September 08 – September 11,2013