Hardware implementation of a virtual blind cane on FPGA
This paper presented an FPGA based real-time virtual blind cane system for the visually impaired. This system consists of a Xilinx ZYNQ-7000 device, a CMOS camera, an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and a line laser. With this system, the visually impaired can recognize the distance and shape of the barrier ahead in real time to avoid it. The computational complexity of processing images in real time can be very high. In addition, for most embedded systems, there is a payload limitation, high performance computer and GPU is not suitable for embedded system. In this research, FPGA was chosen as its computing platform. Contrastive experimental results are presented to show the speed and robustness.
Background ::: Use of computer-assisted insertion of pedicle screws has some advantages owing to the reportedly decreased incidence of pedicle breach and clinical events. Registration-based methods based on preoperative computed tomography imaging, 2D fluoroscopy, and 3D fluoroscopy are the most popular, however each has its limitations. O-arm–based navigation, which uses intraoperative acquisition and registration of navigated images, may overcome many of these disadvantages. We set out to study the clinical accuracy and navigational accuracy for pedicle screw insertion using our recently acquired O-arm and present our preliminary findings.