The first version of Seeing A, Microsoft' s free app that makes it easier for blind people to recognize and describe their surroundings, was launched in the United States in July 2017. Since then, the assistant has been used to perform more than twenty million tasks.
Until now the application only had an English version, but coinciding with the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, promoted by the United Nations, Microsoft has announced that it will be available in Spanish, as well as French, German, Japanese and Dutch.
Seeing AI, which uses artificial intelligence(AI), has been developed based on an inclusive design and the testing process has actively involved people with disabilities through non-profit organizations around the world.
For more than twenty years, Microsoft and Fundación ONCE have been collaborating in the development of accessible technologies. For this reason, experts from ONCE have collaborated in the development of the Spanish version, and have been involved in the testing of the beta version of the product and have provided recommendations for its improvement.
Specially designed for people who are blind or visually impaired, this app demonstrates that technology can do truly important things to improve people's lives, highlighting features such as:
- Short texts: Reading the text through the cell phone camera.
- Documents: Recognition of documents and identification of their different parts, integrating with VoiceOver.
- Products: Beeps to help locate barcodes, scanning them and identifying products in packaging, expiration date information and processing recommendations.
- Facial recognition: Recognizes people in the user's usual environment, including their emotions. It also identifies family members, friends or co-workers.
- Environment recognition: This is an experiential feature that describes the environment, such as a room or a landscape.
- Currency: Allows you to identify the value of banknotes and currencies, including euros, dollars and pounds, among others.
- Brightness: Emits an audible tone corresponding to the brightness of the environment.
- Color: Identifies the color of objects.
- Writing: Reads handwritten text
- Recognition of photographs: Identifies people and objects that appear in the images.
- Image recognition in other apps: In apps such as Mail, Photos, Twitter and WhatsApp.
This assistant, based on artificial intelligence technology, has helped people who are blind or have low vision to perform the multiple tasks of their daily lives, thanks to the large number of tools available and which allow them to enjoy greater autonomy.
