[access-uk] 5 Apps: The best camera apps for blind and visually impaired iPhone users | TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog
- From: Gordon Keen <gordonkeen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2013 14:32:24 +0000
It's a snappy article!
http://www.tuaw.com/2013/01/04/5-apps-the-best-camera-apps-for-blind-and-visually-impaired-iph/
5 Apps: The best camera apps for blind and visually impaired iPhone users
After yesterday's post showing Tommy Edison's video demo of Instagram from a
blind user's perspective, we thought it would be helpful to check with an
expert and get some suggestions on other camera-centric apps for blind iPhone
users. Today's 5 Apps guest post is from Chancey Fleet, an adaptive technology
instructor at Jewish Guild Healthcare. -- Ed.
With the right apps, the iPhone's camera solves a slew of problems that blind
people have traditionally relied on bulky, single-use devices to handle.
For the vexatious wad of unidentified cash in a pocket, purse or wallet,
there's LookTel MoneyReader. This US$9.99 app uses object-recognition
technology and the iPhone's bright LED flash to recognize currency almost
instantaneously, even in low light or in a moving car. MoneyReader is savvy
enough to recognize several different countries' bills, including the US
Dollar, Euro, British Pound, Canadian Dollar and Australian Dollar.
Object recognition is also at the core of OMoby, which is designed as a visual
search engine for products. This app excels at identifying tiny,
identical-feeling toiletries; sugar packets; and, if you get your hand in the
frame, "hand." OMoby is a free app, serving as a technology demo for the IQ
Engines "visual intelligence" search API for developers.
Any blind person will tell you that rumors about the death of hard-copy print
are exaggerated: from restaurant checks to office memos, there's still plenty.
Blindsight's TextDetective captures document images and turns them into plain
text, which can be read with Voiceover using speech output or Braille. The
process takes only seconds and provides great results if you have a clearly
printed document, good lighting conditions and a steady hand. (The first
"reading machine," created in 1976 by legendary inventor and new Google staffer
Ray Kurzweil, cost $50,000 and weighed 350 pounds. TextDetective costs $9.99.
iPhone not included.)
Although several apps are purported to identify colors, they do a mediocre job
compared to standalone devices like the ColorTest, which occlude all light
around the object being tested, report patterns by playing fluctuating tones
and recognize hundreds of shades.
Trying to sort laundry? Digit-Eyes updates the classic strategy of labeling
clothes. Traditionalists do this with anything from safety pins to metal
Braille tags: Nancy Miracle, Digit-Eyes's designer, suggests you do it with
washable bar codes, which cue the Digit-Eyes app to play back an audio
recording or text note you've made that corresponds to the specific code for
each item.
The $19.99 Digit-Eyes app also looks up commercial bar code information,
complete with package directions and nutrition facts; it also allows a user to
print QR codes with embedded text. For blind workers who need a serious tool
for fast and accurate inventory management, Ms. Miracle has helpfully reviewed
two Bluetooth laser scanners from Serial-IO that read bar codes more quickly
and in more diverse lighting conditions than does the iPhone camera. [We
reviewed Digit-Eyes on TUAW in 2010. –Ed.]
No matter how much technology you have, it's a fact of life: sometimes, you
just need to borrow a pair of functioning eyeballs. VizWiz can help with that.
Simply take a photo, type or speak a question, and a web volunteer will get
back to you -- usually within minutes -- with an answer. You can also opt to
post your picture and question to Facebook, if you dare.
You can read more about Chancey and her experience of navigating New York City
in this feature story on WNYC.
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