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Begin forwarded message: > From: Scott Granados <[email protected]> > Date: 22 August 2011 07:28:31 PM GMT+01:00 > To: Mobile Access Chat <[email protected]> > Subject: [M-A] Fw: [aiphone] Fw: BBC News - Smartphone cameras bring > independenceto blind people > Reply-To: Mobile Access Chat <[email protected]> > > > > From: Reginald George > Sent: Monday, August 22, 2011 1:17 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [aiphone] Fw: BBC News - Smartphone cameras bring independenceto > blind people > > This is the best article I have ever seen about the Vizwiz app. And it > finally answers that eternal question, who are these wonderful people? > > http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14505748 > > Smartphone cameras bring independence to blind people > > 19 August 2011 Last updated at 03:19 ET By Damon Rose Editor, BBC Ouch! > VizWiz puts out the user's query to a panel of volunteer helpers > Snapping an image with your smartphone camera brings more than just a > pretty picture if you are blind. With the right app, it can increase > your independence. > > Knowing what food is inside a packet or details about the post which has > just arrived on your doormat are everyday things that most people take > for granted. > > Blind people have traditionally sought this kind of visual information > from family and friends, or from an employed personal assistant. But > this has meant having to fit in with other people's time or spend > significant money on help. Now there are an increasing number of > alternatives. > > As smart phones become more accessible, some with built in speech and > Braille output, it is possible for people with sight loss to get slivers > of visual assistance when there's no one else around to ask. > > Want to know what colour your shirt is? Use a colour detector app. Want > to know if it is still daylight outside? Use a light detector app. Want > to read a notice on your work's noticeboard? Use a text recognition app, > of course. > > What's in this jar? > The most recent visual assistance product to hit the app store is > VizWiz. As well as giving you automated image recognition from > intelligent software, it throws your questions open to a small band of > volunteers standing-by on the internet - a human cloud, willing to > donate ten seconds of their time here and there to describe photos which > come in. > > On its website, the VizWiz is described as: "Take a Picture, Speak a > Question, and Get an Answer". > > The free app and service, developed by the University of Rochester in > New York, has received between ten and 12 thousand questions in its > first two months. The volunteers are made up of staff and students who > receive a sound alert when a question arrives, either via Twitter, text > message or the web. They tap in a response which is received by the > original sender. > > "The most popular type of question is a product that they have which has > text written on it, a label with instructions. People want to know what > it says, how to cook it or when it expires," said Professor Jeff Bigham, > the man behind the service. > > "We can very clearly track the time of day," explained Prof. Bigham. > > "In the morning people are asking about clothing, the colour or pattern. > A few people ask if their shirt matches their pants." > > "Around one or two eastern time we start getting questions about wine > from what we assume is the UK, asking what label, what year, that kind > of thing." > > It is this kind of subjective answer that a piece of software can't give > and that a human service can. But humans need sleep. Prof. Bigham admits > that, though computer scientists are famed for staying up very late, the > 6am to 7am timeslot can be a bit difficult to fill with volunteers from > the university. > > Human cloud > "It's a really exciting time to work in access technology. A great new > resource is that there are people out there on the web. Everyone is > connected and we can do a lot of interesting things with it," he said. > > "People have been throwing around terms like Human Cloud for a while, > and Crowd in the Cloud. > > "A lot of work which happened in crowd sourcing before it, took time. > Like Wikipedia, it 'took time' for articles to emerge. What's > interesting with our service is the realtime aspect of it. Someone out > there needs help from the cloud and, in almost real time, they get it." > > Users know that it is humans at the other end and this has generated > some "crazy" questions that could never have been answered by automated > recognition software. > > "We had one person who kept taking a picture of the sky and asking 'what > is this"' every 5 minutes for a couple of hours," said Prof. Bigham. > > "I had no idea what was going on. It also happens we loosely monitor > Twitter. Someone later tweeted 'VizWiz just helped me watch the > sunset'." > > Blind photography > In a perhaps unexpected 21st century development, blind people are now > finding they need to learn the basics of photography in order to take > advantage of the growing number of text and image recognition services > on smart phones. > > How do you hold the camera up? And how close do you put it to the object > you want to know more about? Angles, perspective, distance and light, > are concepts that don't come naturally to people who have never been > able to see. > > The oMoby app is capable of recognising products from a photograph Steve > Nutt is an IT consultant in Hertfordshire who has been blind since > birth. It took him two weeks to master how to frame a shot which he does > in a very functional way, quite different to how sighted people would do > it. > > He explains: "If you're taking a picture of, say, a tin, you need to > make sure you get the whole tin in there. I would stand it up so you get > all the sides with the label and snap from about 8 inches above it. > > "If you are taking a picture of some text on a piece of paper, > centralise the camera and lift it up about ten inches. Keep your hand > dead straight and dead still when taking the image. > > "You have to also bear in mind the size of the thing you're taking the > picture of. the smaller the thing, the closer you need to be to it ... > I'd be lying if I said it was easy." > > Jeff Bigham's team sees the results of the camerawork coming from users > like Steve. Not everyone gets it right with their first shot. > > "We definitely get a few attempts sometimes. It's not always easy to > frame the photos. Sometimes the centre is out of the photo. if they're > asking what is on a can of soup label, we generally say 'we can't tell > what this is, the label is likely on the other side of the can'." > > > __._,_.___ > Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post | Start a New Topic > Messages in this topic (1) > RECENT ACTIVITY: New Members 12 > Visit Your Group > This group is moderated by Alberto Arreola. 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