Projection Profiling Based Sinhala Braille Character Recognition and Conversion

Abstract

Abstract: The instantaneous conversion of written Braille characters to readable, colloquial text of the particular language it was written in, has been a hurdle for many sighted personal. Various solutions have been proposed in this regard and many solutions are available to convert Braille to different languages. However, there are very few attempts to do the same for Sinhala Braille symbols and at present widely using conversion method is to use an individual well versed in both Sinhala language as well as Sinhala Braille characters. As such, a considerable delay occurs in the translation process. Hence the visually impaired academics and students, as well as soldiers visually impaired due to war, who work with Braille encounter many hardships. Their teachers and superiors also have faced numerous problems as they are unable to understand Braille. One such consequence is that students sitting for exams face delays in receiving exam results as translation from Braille to Sinhala introduces additional delays in addition to often the context being lost in translation. Proposed conversion engine will easily convert the Sinhala Braille text on papers to the corresponding Sinhala text and will assist the learning and communication processes of visually impaired citizens of Sri Lanka. The Braille printed documents to be converted through this software need to be subjected to image pre-processing, projection profiling and Braille recognition processes, capturing a picture of the Braille characters on a sheet initiates the process. Six dots are used to create Braille symbols. This system identifies these distinct symbols using a specially constructed framework and algorithms, followed by comparing them against a database of symbols in the recognition process and the final output is derived using the Sinhala alphabet.