Computer Vision: My Improvised Wearable Smart-Glasses using Virtual Reality Goggles + Android smartphone + Bose headphones

Hello World! Since I will never afford expensive, wearable smart-glasses, such as OrCam MyEye or Envision Glass, I decided to create my own wearable smart-glasses! ☺️

The hardware I am using are a generic virtual reality headset, Xiaomi Redmi 9T smartphone, Bose QuietComfort 35 Series II headphones and Logitech K480 Multi-Device Bluetooth Wireless QWERTY Keyboard. — Though rudimentary, yet it WORKS for me! ☺️

My Xiaomi Redmi 9T smartphone is equipped with 128GB internal memory + 128GB microSD card, giving me a 256GB Android smartphone! ☺️ It’s running Xiaomi MIUI 12.5 with an open-source version of Google Android 11, which includes Google Play Store and the Google Assistant. For accessibility, I’m actively using Google TalkBack screenreader from the Android Accessibility Suite, installed from Google Play Store.

My Logitech K480 Bluetooth QWERTY keyboard is used for “remote control” of my Xiaomi Redmi 9T smartphone when it is inside my generic virtual reality helmet. — Note: I removed the lenses for touch-access to the touchscreen, in case of a keyboard problem, etc.

To my surprise, my generic virtual reality helmet came with a sliding window for the smartphone’s rear camera use. It’s construction is of plastic molds, smelling “recently-molded”, presumably made in mainland China. I ordered this pair from Lazada, an online eCommerce site in The Philippines, operated by Alibaba. It’s exact cost was 🇵🇭₱306 (🇺🇸$5.94), and not 🇵🇭₱400 as I’ve previously posted.

For reference purposes, my Xiaomi Redmi 9T costed 🇵🇭₱8399 (October 2021) and my BOSE QuietComfort 35 Series II headphones costed 🇵🇭₱20,500 (November 2021). — So, my improvised wearable smart-glasses costs under 🇺🇸$800! ☺️

Though my virtual reality headset is bulky, UGLY & slightly-heavy, it WORKS for me, giving me a “handsfree” experience that commercially-built smart-glasses have! ☺️ And, NO, I am not wearing this prototype outside my home! It’s my prototype, for me to experiment with in my bedroom, with my mini SCIENCE laboratory! ☺️

The computer vision mobile apps I’ve tested as working are, The vOICe, Envision and Sullivan+. Google Look Out has landscape-mode and appears to be working, however, I don’t have a printed document to test with.

The VR helmet arrived in my home on April 6, 2022. My wife’s nephew helped me get my Xiaomi smartphone into it on the next day, April 7. And then, I performed a 90 minute SCIENCE experiment with it on April 8. With some difficulty, I’m able to insert my Xiaomi smartphone into the structure, yet is easier to remove.

The intent of this specific blog post, is for me to have a “reference article” for use in future blog posts and Twitter tweets, as to avoid repeat-posting of same content. ☺️

Thanks for reading my latest blog post! Have a Great Day!

🇵🇭🇺🇸👨‍🦯🦽 📱⌨️📻🎧 📚🪀🧮

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Published by Marcos 🇵🇭🇺🇸

Happily-Married, comfortably poor, permanently disabled and totally BLIND. A Terrorism SURVIVOR that's still SURVIVING Terrorism + post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Scientist since 1977, Acoustician since 1979, Computer Scientist/Programmer since 1982, Seismologist since 1988, Criminologist (Behavioral Scientist) since 1992, and many more! Also, had worked in two civilian and one military virology labs in the USA between 1993 and 2003. A Generation X, Filipino-American US expat, living in The Philippines, whom was naturally-born in Boston, grew up mostly in Seattle, some in Chicago, and have lived in Anchorage & San Francisco. Became permanently-disabled in 2003 due to health-related illness, ending my moonlighting career as an independent private investigator in the USA. RETIRED independent developer of computing & electronics technologies after 35 wonderful years, including 20 wonderful years in GNU/Linux development & 8 wonderful years as an independent embedded systems developer of digital electronics. Former speech synthesis systems developer of 30 wonderful years, specializing in foreign language phoneme-to-speech synthesis. Also was a beta tester of third-party software-based speech synthesizers. Former FCC-licensed amateur radio operator of 20 wonderful years, beginning with 2m packet-radio & AmSat communications between Anchorage & Manila. Former member of Anchorage Amateur Radio Club and Mike & Key ARC in Seattle. Learned 10-finger QWERTY touch-typing on a manual typewriter in 1980 at a US-based elementary school. Mastered 10-finger QWERTY touch-typing without looking at the keyboard in 1986. Now have osteoarthritis in both of my hands from all that touch-typing! My primary computer programming language is C, which I learned in 1990. My secondary programming language is B.A.S.I.C., which I self-learned in 1982. Prior to my sight-loss, I used to program in LISP/CLISP and Prolog for my early development of artificial intelligence & machine learning programs. Daily, to compensate/facilitate my sight-loss, I am actively using Apple iOS VoiceOver, Google Android TalkBack and Amazon Fire OS VoiceView screen-readers, in addition to my external Bluetooth QWERTY keyboard and sometimes, my Orbit Writer Braille keyboard, as HOBBIES.

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