iPhone App Describes What Camera Sees to Blind Users

A new app that describes what an iPhone’s camera can see could prove useful to blind and visually impaired users.

Called Seeing AI, the app uses computer vision to provide descriptive aid to users. It can read documents and scan barcodes, beeping at an increasing rate to let users know when their camera is getting close to a given products barcode. But it can also go further, recognizing images captured in other apps, reading signs and labels, and even recognizing people’s faces and offering descriptions of them.

In a blog post, Microsoft, which built the app, says that Jenine Stanley, a legally blind app reviewer for the American Council of the Blind’s Main Menu podcast, said the app “will be a game changer for many”, adding that the sign reading function alone “is worth the app.” (The app is free, but it sounds like a strong endorsement nevertheless.)

Seeing AI is now available from the iOS store in six markets – the US, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, and New Zealand – and Microsoft says that experimental work to refine the app is ongoing, so it could become even more powerful in the future.

Source: Microsoft Accessibility Blog