The proposed device will assist visually handicapped people in navigating the outdoor environment. it will look out for three specific types of visual patterns that are of high importance. these are written text and road signs, vehicles or moving objects, and land/road surface patterns (steps, roughness etc.). the device will be portable and wearable. it will include a small camera mounted on sunglasses, a small computer, and a headphone. when the device is switched on, the camera will capture a video stream of what lies ahead. the computer will process this information using video processing and pattern recognition techniques. based on the importance of different patterns, it will send audio messages to the headphone through a voice synthesizer software. all these tasks will be done in real time. existing visual pattern recognition techniques will be adapted for use in the device. the challenges will be to make the techniques robust in a variety of real world situations, work real time and consume low power. there is a lot of scope to enhance the functionality of the device in the future as well. this includes text recognition for languages other than english, working with challenging lighting conditions such as indoors or at night, and expanding the types of patterns recognized. in future, we can also include gps system in the device for navigation purposes.