{"id":121500,"date":"2020-12-03T01:16:24","date_gmt":"2020-12-03T01:16:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.microsoft.com\/?p=440143"},"modified":"2020-12-03T01:16:24","modified_gmt":"2020-12-03T01:16:24","slug":"seeing-ai-empowers-people-who-are-blind-or-with-low-vision-for-everyday-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2020\/12\/03\/seeing-ai-empowers-people-who-are-blind-or-with-low-vision-for-everyday-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeing AI empowers people who are blind or with low vision for everyday life"},"content":{"rendered":"

A mother and daughter celebrate the first anniversary of the app\u2019s<\/em> Japanese-language version<\/em><\/h3>\n

By Kumiko Tezuka, <\/strong>
Microsoft Japan<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Akiko Ishii and her daughter Ami using Seeing AI to read a picture book together.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Akiko Ishii sits in her living room holding a picture book and balancing her four-year-old daughter, Ami, on her lap. It looks like a typical domestic scene in a typical Tokyo neighborhood, but there\u2019s something special going on here.<\/p>\n

Akiko is blind and her smartphone is doing the reading for her.<\/p>\n

As the phone\u2019s camera scans each page, Microsoft\u2019s Seeing AI app reads out the text aloud. Akiko and Ami smile as they listen. With this technology, they can spend invaluable time reading together and bonding \u2014 just like mothers and children do anywhere.<\/p>\n

Power of artificial intelligence<\/strong><\/p>\n

Seeing AI is a free app that narrates the world for the blind and low vision community. It\u2019s the product of an ongoing research project that harnesses the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to open up the visual world by describing nearby people, text and objects.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s currently available in 70 countries and a number of languages. The Japanese-language version was launched a year ago.<\/p>\n

Seeing AI uses AI technology not only to recognize and read short text passages, documents, product labels and so on, but also to describe people and scenery captured by a mobile phone camera.<\/p>\n

Akiko, who lost her sight as a result of surgery, was already using the English-language version of Seeing AI before the Japanese version was released.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been using the Japanese-language version of Seeing AI now for about a year, and I can say with conviction that it has become indispensable to honing my own individuality.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n

She says that while there are a number of other applications available in Japan for assisting people with visual impairments, they tend to be designed for a single, specific purpose, and don\u2019t provide such a wide range of easy-to-use functions all in one package.<\/p>\n

With Seeing AI she can carry out all sorts of everyday life by using her phone. Apart from reading, she can use it to check the brightness of lights in a room and for describing her surroundings and identifying people and objects as she moves about. Watch the following video:<\/p>\n