I agree with all the comments concerning Tap Tap See mentioned in this thread.  
My only problem is that without the question I rarely get the correct info I 
want from a picture.  This is why I am sad to see VizWiz seemingly fade away do 
to lack of funding and I believe other resources.


I did receive a response from VizWiz and I'm posting with permission the email 
below.

start of message 

>>> Hi Eric,
>>> 
>>> I'll look into this -- certainly, the amount of time/attention that
>>> we're able to spend on this varies. We do try very hard to make sure
>>> it is "working." But, it's a free service, and as such everyone
>>> supporting it has many many other things on their plate. IQ Engines in
>>> particular may not be supported ... they were recently purchased by
>>> Yahoo and (I believe) discontinued their API.
>>> 
>>> We have been experimenting with various "volunteer" models for
>>> answering questions, but it's trickier than it would appear at first.
>>> That also only solves the "human labor" component, not the cost of
>>> development/upkeep/server maintenance. It's not clear how to make the
>>> latter in particular self-sustaining.
>>> 
>>> If you, or other users, have thoughts on these long-term issues, I
>>> would love to consider them.
>>> 
>>> As for email, I generally try to respond to emails very quickly. But,
>>> I get hundreds of emails a day across different projects, etc., so
>>> sometimes they unfortunately get missed. I'm sorry if I let one slip
>>> through.
>>> 
>>> Thanks, Jeff 

On Jan 30, 2014, at 2:04 PM, Sieghard Weitzel <[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi Eileen,
>  
> Which phone do you have? I tried VizWiz last week on my 5S and it could not 
> understand/record my question. I tried it several times and each time the app 
> told me I had not recorded a question. I have given the app access to the 
> microphone and I wonder if maybe this only effects the 5S with the 64 Bit 
> processor since they did update VizWiz at the end of September and list iO?S 
> 7 compatibility. I also remember another person saying they couldn't record 
> and it would be interesting to pin this down and let them know although I 
> somehow think they must have figured this out by now.
> Anyhow, my answer took about 7 hours and I think I read somebody else got a 
> reply the next day. I used to use VizWiz on my digital thermostat which 
> controls my in-floor heating, but I tried this with Tap Tap See and got the 
> correct reply with the current temperature within 20 seconds.
> I have a feeling VizWiz may be one of these apps like Daisy Worm or In Daisy 
> which will just seize to exist at some point. It definitely shows how Tap Tap 
> See did the right thing and went with a paid model, let's hope this works for 
> them and they make enough money to not only keep the service going but to 
> improve it and add the ability to ask a simple question along with the 
> picture.
>  
>  
> Regards,
> Sieghard
> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of 
> Eileens Misrahi
> Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2014 10:46 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: Vizwiz Contact info from the website
>  
> Hello,
> 
> 
> The way VizWiz works is that you take a picture first. The next step is that 
> you will be prompted to record a question. A new screen will open and you can 
> toggle the different types of response engines. I usually only select "web 
> workers." The last time I use the app it took about 4 minutes to get a 
> response. However, at the time, I didn't have any sighted assistance, so the 
> wait was worth it. HTH.
> 
> 
> Best,
> Eileen Hello,
> 
> 
> The way VizWiz works is that you take a picture first. The next step is that 
> you will be prompted to record a question. A new screen will open and you can 
> toggle the different types of response engines. I usually only select "web 
> workers." The last time I use the app it took about 4 minutes to get a 
> response. However, at the time, I didn't have any sighted assistance, so the 
> wait was worth it. It's free. HTH.
> 
> 
> Best,
> Eileen 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
> On Jan 26, 2014, at 9:35 PM, "Julie Dawson" <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> Does this ap have a cost and do you write in questions or take pictures? I 
> don't know much about the ap itself.
> Live  simply,
>   Love generously,
>   Care  deeply,
>   Speak  kindly                                                
>   And  leave the rest to God! 
>  
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Eric Caron
> To: [email protected]
> Sent: Sunday, January 26, 2014 5:29 PM
> Subject: Re: Vizwiz Contact info from the website
>  
>  
> Hi listers,
>  
> I tried yet again to send a picture and question with VizWiz and to my 
> surprise I got a answer.  I'm not positive the question recording workek, but 
> still this is the best result I've gotten in a long time.
>  
> I also wrote to support and got a thoughtful and positive response back.
>  
> I hope that VizWiz can improve and mature as a app.  It seems that they are 
> also hurting from lack of funding and other changes making it difficult to 
> reply to the requests.
>  
> Eric Caron 
>  
>  
>  
> On Jan 26, 2014, at 2:02 PM, Nimit <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> 
> Hello, Everyone, With all the talk about vizwiz, I decided to hunt for their 
> contact info.   I went to app store, typed vizwiz in the search tab and when 
> It showed up, I double tapped it. I double tapped on reviews and app support. 
>  It brought me to their website I clicked on contact us and here's what I am 
> finding and I selected and copied using my braille display as it was easy 
> that way.   Here it is: 
> We'd love to hear your feedback!
> Please send us your questions, comments, rants and raves via the addresses 
> below:
> 
> ·         Email: [email protected]
> ·         Twitter: @rochci
> ·         ROC HCI: hci.cs.rochester.edu 
> ·         Hope many people contact them and I tried with no luck.  I will do 
> again, so just wanted to pass it along.  Have a good day!   Sent from my 
> super iPhone 
>  
>  
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