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Researchers’ app could help people with visual impairments navigate the NYC subway
Researchers at NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering and Grossman School of Medicine have created an app to help people with visual impairments navigate New York City’s subway system. Commute Booster uses a smartphone camera to recognize relevant signs along a transit route, guiding the user to their destination while ignoring nonessential signs and posters.
Android 13 will have native support for braille displays
Android 13 will help people with blindness by including built-in braille display support.
Disability organizations call on DOJ to finalize online accessibility rules
In a letter published today, 181 disability organizations call for the Department of Justice to finalize rules for online accessibility.
YouTube's accessibility upgrades include multiple audio tracks
YouTube is upgrading its accessibility with a test for multi-track audio as well as automatic captioning for livestreams of any size.
Facebook improves AI photo descriptions for the visually impaired
Facebook has detailed how its AI describes photos for the visually impaired, including new tech that offers detailed labels.
Google is testing an AI system to help vision-impaired people run races
The Project Guideline app can keep them on track with audio cues.
Naughty Dog details the extensive accessibility in 'The Last of Us Part II'
'The Last of Us Part II' will have accessibility on a level you likely haven't seen in any other game.
Google’s new keyboard helps Android users type in braille
Today, Google is rolling out a new keyboard that will let blind and low-vision users type in braille without any additional hardware and in any app. The TalkBack braille keyboard is integrated directly into Android, so it should work whether you’re posting on social media, responding to a text or writing an email. Google says the keyboard will be familiar to anyone who has typed using braille before.
Bose Frames work with Microsoft's navigation tech for the blind
When they came out last year, the Bose Frames were an interesting, albeit unfinished showcase of what a company could do by fusing together smartglasses and headphones. We didn't think Bose's experiment was a consistent success, but clearly the wearable had potential. Microsoft certainly thinks so.
Microsoft's Seeing AI app helps the blind in five more languages
Microsoft's Seeing AI has been helpful for describing objects and text to the blind, but there's been a key problem: it has only been available in English, making it a non-starter if you don't speak the language. That won't be a problem for some people from now on. Microsoft has updated the iOS-only app with support for Dutch, French, German, Japanese and Spanish, letting many more people read signs, interpret someone's facial expressions and otherwise navigate the world using spoken cues in their native tongues.
Alexa’s Show and Tell feature IDs objects for blind and low-vision users
For people with vision impairments, figuring out what's in a can or jar of food without opening it can be difficult or impossible. Amazon thinks it has a solution to that and other daily challenges that its blind and low-vision users face. Today, the company unveiled a new Show and Tell feature that allows users to hold an item in front of an Echo Show and ask "Alexa, what am I holding?" Using computer vision and machine learning for object recognition, the Alexa-powered device will respond with its best guess.
The band X Ambassadors created a music video for the visually impaired
For people who are blind or visually impaired, listening to a music video is often just like listening to the track. The band X Ambassadors wants to change that. They've teamed up with Microsoft to create an "audio-only music video" that's meant to allow blind, low-vision and sighted fans to enjoy the single "Boom" in a new way.
Lego offers instructions for visually impaired builders
All Lego sets come with visual instructions that indicate where builders should place each piece. But such guidance isn't accessible for the blind. The Lego Foundation today announced they are releasing instructions in audio and Braille for a small number of sets through a partnership with the Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence.
Google Docs 'live edits' feature helps the visually impaired
Google has launched a number of accessibility features this year, designed to make its products useable by everyone. Sound Amplifier, for example, makes conversations in loud places easier to hear, while Live Transcribe gives deaf and hard of hearing users context about the environment around them. Its latest offering is for Live Edits in Google Docs, designed to help users keep tabs on real-time updates made by document collaborators.
Tesla reportedly blocks access to social network for work complaints
Tesla is known to be sensitive about leaks, but that might have serious consequences for employees who just want to discuss workplace problems. Blind, an anonymous social network for work complaints, told Verdict that Tesla appears to be blocking staff access to the site. Workers can only be verified on Blind using their company email addresses, but verification emails stopped going through -- and access to the app on the corporate network is simply forbidden. The restriction appears to apply worldwide.
Microsoft's AI app for the blind helps you explore photos with touch
Microsoft's computer vision app for the blind and poor-sighted, Seeing AI, just became more useful for those moments when you're less interested in navigating the world than learning about what's on your phone. The company has updated the iOS app with an option to explore photos by touching them. Tap your finger on an image and you'll hear a description of both the objects in that scene as well as their spatial relationship. You can get descriptions for photos taken through Seeing AI's Scene channel, but they'll also be available for pictures in your camera roll as well as other apps (through options menus).
Anonymous social network Blind left user data exposed
Blind is a workplace social network that lets employees at various companies discuss sensitive topics anonymously. The company describes it as a safe place where workers can talk about salaries, workplace concerns and employee misconduct without being identified. But Blind recently left a database server unsecured, exposing some of its users' account information, including their corporate email addresses.
AR technology helps the blind navigate by making objects 'talk'
If you're blind, finding your way through a new area can sometimes be challenging. In the future, though, you might just need to wear a headset. Caltech researchers have developed a Cognitive Augmented Reality Assistant (CARA) that uses Microsoft's HoloLens to make objects "talk" to you. CARA uses computer vision to identify objects in a given space and say their names -- thanks to spatialized sound, you'll know if there's a chair in front of you or a door to your right. The closer you are, the higher the pitch of an object's voice.
Google's Lookout will help the blind navigate their environment
Google has announced one of its upcoming apps called Lookout as part of the annual I/O conference, and it has nothing to do with the mobile security application of the same name. The tech giant's Lookout was designed to help the blind and the visually impaired be more independent by giving them spoken notifications about their environment. For instance, it can tell them that there's a "chair 3 o'clock," so they don't bump into the object to their right. The app can also read texts, such as Exit signs over doors.
Ford’s smart windows can help blind passengers take in the view
Ford has created a device that could help visually impaired travelers get a sense of what the scenery around them looks like. It's called "Feel the View" and it turns a window into a vibrating depiction of what's outside. First, with the push of a button, the device snaps a picture of the window's view. It then turns that picture into a grayscale image and each shade of gray corresponds to a vibration of different intensity. Feel the View can generate up to 255 different levels of vibrations. The blind or visually impaired rider can then touch the window and feel what the outside looks like.
