Aiming at designing the image processing unit of a visual prosthesis for sight handicapped, an efficient picture simplification scheme for tactile outputs is proposed. Some psychological considerations are given to help in its development. A new simple and robust segmentation method which combines the advantages of both the classical edge and region approaches is introduced. This method uses, on the one hand, the inherent property of edges to provide transition thresholds between regions of monotonous intensity, and on the other hand, the fact that region segmentation methods give closed regions. A region labeling is applied using those thresholds, yielding well outlined areas. Artificial textures are introduced to help in the tactile discrimination of shapes.