Simon Kebede Darota

Mr. Simon Kebede Darota

orcid

Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

2Years (2025-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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29 September 2025 in Sensors
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
FMFitsum Yebeka Mekonnen
Fitsum Yebeka Mekonnen
MBMohammad Fayez Al Bataineh
Mohammad Fayez Al Bataineh
DADana Ideisan Abu-Abdoun
Dana Ideisan Abu-Abdoun
ASAhmed Serag
Ahmed Serag
KTKena Teshale Tamiru
Kena Teshale Tamiru
SDSimon Kebede Darota
Simon Kebede Darota
Visual impairment affects millions worldwide, creating significant barriers to environmental interaction and independence. Existing assistive technologies often rely on cloud-based processing, raising privacy concerns and limiting accessibility in resource-constrained environments. This paper explores the integration and potential of open-source AI models in developing a fully offline assistive system that can be locally set up and operated to support visually impaired individuals. Built on a Raspberry Pi 5, the system combines real-time object detection (YOLOv8), optical character recognition (Tesseract), face recognition with voice-guided registration, and offline voice command control (VOSK), delivering hands-free multimodal interaction without dependence on cloud infrastructure. Audio feedback is generated using Piper for real-time environmental awareness. Designed to prioritize user privacy, low latency, and affordability, the platform demonstrates that effective assistive functionality can be achieved using only open-source tools on low-power edge hardware. Evaluation results in controlled conditions show 75–90% detection and recognition accuracies, with sub-second response times, confirming the feasibility of deploying such systems in privacy-sensitive or resource-constrained environments.