Using Transfer Learning to Refine Object Detection Models for Blind and Low Vision Users.

Object detection models available on smartphones such as YOLOv8 can potentially help identify and locate objects of interest to people who are blind or low vision (pBLV). However, current models may miss crucial objects for pBLV. Here, we compared 5 transfer learning methods for adding new classes of interest to pBLV navigation that are absent from the Common Objects in Context (COCO) training dataset.