The Reserve Bank of India will soon come up with a mobile application to help visually impaired people in identifying currency notes.
“The Reserve Bank of India has been sensitive to the challenges faced by the visually challenged in conducting their day to day business with Indian banknotes,” said the central bank which is at the moment in a lookout for a vendor to develop this particular mobile application.
The RBI said that identification of banknote denomination is key to the successful completion of cash-based transactions by visually impaired persons.
As of now, Intaglio printing based identification marks for helping the visually challenged in the identification of banknotes denomination is present in the notes of Rs 100 and above.
The proposed mobile app would be able to identify the denomination of notes of Mahatma Gandhi Series and Mahatma Gandhi (new) series. It would do this by capturing the image of the notes placed in front of the mobile camera, the RBI said while inviting bids from tech firms to develop the app. It would also generate “audio notification” intimating the currency note denomination to the user if the image is captured correctly. Else, it will intimate the user to try again in case of the image is not readable.
The central bank had last year in June declared that it would explore the feasibility of developing such a suitable device or mechanism. It had added that this would aid the visually impaired in the identification of Indian banknotes.
At present, banknotes in the denominations of Rs 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 and 2,000 are in circulation. Besides Re 1 notes is also issued by the Centre.
If successful, the RBI would help about 80 lakh blind or visually impaired people in the country.