The visually impaired use smart glasses that speak and apps to get help from volunteers
Founder Hans Jorgen Wiberg, who is a visually impaired Danish furniture craftsman, launched free mobile app Be My Eyes in 2015, which enables the visually impaired to seek help from volunteers in performing daily tasks, such as reading product labels and using home appliances.
- by autobot
- Aug. 4, 2024
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Founder Hans Jorgen Wiberg, who is a visually impaired Danish furniture craftsman, launched free mobile app Be My Eyes in 2015, which enables the visually impaired to seek help from volunteers in performing daily tasks, such as reading product labels and using home appliances. When a user requests assistance through the app, a notification is sent to volunteers in the same time zone and who speak the same language. The first volunteer to answer the request will be connected to the user through live video to perform the required task. The app has won several awards, including the 2021 Apple Design Award under the Social Impact category. The app – which can be downloaded on the Apple App Store, Google Play, or the Microsoft Store – has a network of more than 670,000 visually impaired users and 7.6 million volunteers. Be My Eyes users can request assistance in over 180 languages. Developed by American technology company CloudSight, TapTapSee is a mobile app available for download on iPhones and Android devices that uses image recognition technology to help visually impaired users to identify objects. Double-tap the right side of the screen to take a picture, or double-tap the left side to take a video. The app requires VoiceOver or TalkBack – the screen reader feature built into iPhones and Android devices respectively – to be enabled, so that objects identified in the photo or video can be verbalised to the user. Technology company Envision has created a pair of AI-powered glasses that speaks to users about what is around them. Targeted at people with poor vision and the visually impaired, the wearable device comes with a built-in camera and speakers to enable text to be recognised and read out. The device can also be trained to recognise friends and family, and alert users that there are obstacles. It is designed with a titanium frame meant to be worn all day. Users have to download the Envision app on their smartphone and pair it with their glasses via Bluetooth. There are three editions of the glasses on sale on with a starting price of $2,592.