The main objective of IBIDEM is to develop a video phone useful for lip reading by hearing-impaired people as well as provide capabilities for remote monitoring based on a novel type of space-variant sensor and using standard telephone lines.

Long-distance communication for both social and practical purposes is becoming an increasingly important factor in every-day life. Hearing-impairment does, however, prevent many people from using normal voice telephones for obvious reasons. A solution to this problem for the hearing-impaired is the use of video phones. Currently available video phones do, however, not meet the dynamic requirements necessary for lip reading. The spatial resolution is also too small.

In order to facilitate speech reading, signing and finger spelling, IBIDEM will develop a video phone based on a novel type of visual sensor matching the resolution of the human retina in both the spatial and temporal domains (a retina-like or space-variant sensor). Members of the IBIDEM consortium already hold a patent in Europe and the US for a prototype of such an imaging device. The geometry of the visual sensor, similarly to the human retina, has a high resolution in the central part and a degrading resolution in the peripheral visual field. This solution results in a reduction of the number of pixels of the acquired image (allowing a higher transmission rate on standard telephone lines) without degrading the perceptual appearance of the image.

A second objective of IBIDEM is the use of the same equipment for remote monitoring of health status. The system can be used for obtaining information about the status of a client in the form of images and could be extended to include various physiological parameters like heart rate, blood pressure etc.

Technical Approach : The IBIDEM project will construct a video phone using a camera with the retinal sensor, motorised system for moving the point viewed by the camera as well as a LCD to display the transmitted images. This video phone will be a high-quality low-cost aid for the hearing-impaired as well as being useful for remote monitoring.

Impact and Expected Results : The video phone will be designed with the active participation of members of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, and will be demonstrated by inter-personal communication between two speakers one or both with hearing disabilities as well as in a situation of remotely monitoring health conditions using audio and visual information.

Concurrently the consortium will evaluate the targeted market segment and disseminate the intermediate results and the foreseen achievements to interested users to facilitate exploitation.