Phone apps help blind 'see'
Locate and identify things, landmarks, signs...
What you need to know about cloud backup
Two innovative mobile phone applications are in development that, it’s claimed, will help the blind and visually impaired more easily identify everyday objects and independently navigate.
Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com
SeeScan’s a text-to-speech app designed by US firm iVisit which uses a mobile phone’s camera to recognise everyday objects. When the camera’s pointed towards something the app recognises, a description’s read out to the user.
A database helps the software identify various objects. The database can be trained, iVisit claimed. Presumably a sighted person’s help is required here.
The firm’s also pitching SeeScan as an app for reading out labels from medicine bottles.
Its second app, SeeStar, is a location awareness tool designed to act like a pair of eyes for the user.
SeeStar connects to a sighted remote assistant who describes the visually impaired person’s surroundings according the image the phone’s camera is picking up. GPS data and Google Maps also helps the assistant define the person’s exact location.
But SeeStar isn’t totally dependent on the sighted remote user, because it’s also able to automatically recognise landmarks and signs.
An iVisit spokesperson told Register Hardware that it currently has both applications running on Windows Mobile 5 and higher handsets, each equipped with touchscreens and 3G.
SeeStar and SeeScan should be available this summer, with support for non-Windows Mobile devices expect to follow by the end of 2009. ®
COMMENTS
Er, what?
So this helps blind people find objects; as long as you know where the object is and can point a camera at it?
Is it just me or have this company just moved the problem?
Hurray!
If SeeScan and SeeStar work well and are somewhat affordable, this will be a huge step towards independence for the visually impaired.
Ray Kurzweil's KNFB Reader combines a phone camera with OCR software. That's supposedly enough (I haven't used one) to read street signs, but object recognition is a whole new level.
http://www.knfbreader.com/products-mobile.php
IT infrastructure monitoring strategies
What you need to know about cloud backup
Enabling efficient data center monitoring
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Top 10 SIEM implementer’s checklist
