STRUCTURE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR PROVIDING AVAILABILITY OF ART OBJECTS FOR THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED PERSONS

Abstract

The current challenge is to ensure accessibility to art objects for visually impaired people by developing information technology that will allow converting 2D images into 3D models and generating descriptions for them in Braille (for example, a description of the color scheme, a brief description of what is depicted in the picture, etc.)

The brain of a blind person is able to convert tactile information into visual images, so tactile paintings created using 3D modeling and 3D printing technologies will allow blind people to “see” artistic masterpieces with their fingertips. The variable height of volumetric elements when creating tactile graphics for blind people can effectively and intuitively transmit various types of information, so when developing information technology to ensure accessibility to art objects for visually impaired people, an important and urgent task will be to recognize a 2D image and its 3D modeling (building up the relief to obtain an image of a three-dimensional object, as well as a mathematical model that describes the structure of the object, the location of its points in space, the mathematical description of the surfaces of the object). The analysis of known methods and tools for 2D image recognition and 3D modeling showed that, despite a number of existing tools for rendering 2D images into 3D models, methods and tools for rendering art objects (paintings) into 3D models are currently absent. The proposed information technology for providing accessibility to art objects for visually impaired people is multimodal – it automates (in order to simplify the implementation) the conversion of a 2D picture into its 3D model, ready for printing on a 3D printer, and also generates a description of the picture in Braille, ready for printing on a typhloprinter. The main source of information, and therefore the primary information, in the information technology of ensuring accessibility to art objects for the visually impaired is a 2D picture, as well as answers to the questionnaire about the color scheme and content of the image in the picture.