ASU Student sees how AI can assist people with vision loss

Kelly Raines wins research honors for artificial intelligence work for smart glasses.

Partial vision loss affects more than six million Americans, making everyday tasks like reading street signs or navigating unfamiliar terrain challenging. To address these difficulties, Kelly Raines, a master's student in the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence at Arizona State University, is developing AI-powered solutions to help individuals with visual disabilities.

Kelly Raines, a student in the computer science Accelerated Master’s degree program in the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, part of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University, poses in a lab wearing a pair of smart glasses. She studies how artificial intelligence can assist people with visual disabilities.

Photographer: Kelly DeVos

As part of her research in the Laboratory for Learning Evaluation of Autonomous Systems (LENS Lab), Raines has been integrating AI with smart glasses, such as the Ray-Ban Meta AI Glasses, to provide realtime assistance. Her work allows users to ask questions about their surroundings and receive information to help them navigate safely and independently.

In recognition of her contributions, Raines received an honorable mention in the Computing Research Association’s Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Awards, which highlights promising talent in computer science research.

The LENS Lab project builds on the existing capabilities of smart glasses, which can already capture images, recognize objects, and overlay digital information onto real-world views. To better understand the needs of visually impaired individuals, Raines conducted interviews with community members, identifying safety and reliability as top concerns Based on this feedback, she and her team developed an AI-powered assistant that helps users interpret their surroundings. By simply asking aloud, wearers can get details about objects in the distance, the number of steps in a staircase, or the text on a street sign. The research focuses on combining advanced AI models with spatial reasoning to create a seamless, interactive experience. Assistant Professor Ransalu Senanayake, who leads the LENS Lab, describes Raines as an engaged researcher whose work demonstrates how AI can empower individuals by enhancing accessibility and independence.

Written by Kelly DeVos with revisions | Assisted by AI-powered editing tools