Technology assisting the blind — Video processing based staircase detection

Real-time video processing and analysis are getting more present in various technical systems and moreover provide potential application in systems for assisting the blind. Fast processing of video frames allows us to extract useful information and detection of objects that are important for the blind people orientation and navigation, especially in unfamiliar areas. In this paper, we propose the method for staircase detection from video frames as a part of assistance system for the blind. The method is based on morphological preprocessing operations and further vertical and horizontal analysis of the frames. The experimental results obtained by implementing proposed method show its contributions in accuracy and performance.