Smartphones are very powerful computers that we often take for granted and simply use to check Twitter or Reddit and play some games or watch videos of puppies. But for the visually-impaired, smartphones can be very helpful tools that support them throughout the day and bring them a bigger sense of independence. We've covered several apps in this vein before, like Be My Eyes and Lookout, and now there's a new kid on the Android block: Envision AI.
Like its name suggests, Envision uses Artificial Intelligence to recognize things and people around you. You can teach it faces and things, but it also understands scenes and environments by itself. It can read text aloud, too, and in multiple languages, which comes in handy in new places or when checking out menus and supermarket items.
The Envision app has been available on iOS for a while, but it just landed on Android. The former had a subscription price to benefit from some of its features, but the latter doesn't seem to have any - at least there are no IAPs on the Play Store yet. But this is an early release for our platform and the developers promise to update the app weekly until it reaches feature parity with iOS.
If you want to try out Envision AI and see how well it works, you can grab it for free from the widget below.
PRESS RELEASE
Envision, a life-changing tool that brings the visual world to life for the visually impaired, is now available on Android. Delft, The Netherlands - 15th August 2018 – Envision is a smartphone application that enables visually impaired people to access the visual information around them independently. After a great reception from the visually impaired community for the iOS version, they have launched their first version on Android, making their technology even more accessible to the world.
The iOS version of the app has been enabling thousands of visually impaired people to regain their sense of independence, allowing them to read text, recognise objects, detect colors and find faces on their own terms. The developers now want to extend the same capability to Android users in the world. “We have been overwhelmed with requests for an Android version of our service. That is why we have put out our very early version that performs the primary functions of the app. We believe that building products out in the open, with constant feedback from the users, is a much better way of developing quality services than doing it in secret. Hence, we will be working on a weekly update cycle and will be pushing a new feature to our Android each week based on our user’s feedback.” says, Karthik Kannan, the co-founder of Envision
The launch of Envision on Android is a huge step towards making the world a more accessible place for the visually impaired. This new found independence really empowers a large section of the society to be more productive and contribute better to the society.
What is Envision? Envision is a tool that uses artificial intelligence to make visual information accessible to the visually impaired. With Envision, visually impaired users can shop in supermarkets, use public transport, read menu cards in restaurants, recognise their friends, find their belongings and so much more, all on their own. It processes the images taken by a user and intelligently extracts useful information from it. It can read texts in multiple languages from any surface, recognise faces and objects, describe scenes around a person, detect colors and more. Envision’s context-based approach always ensures that users get the right information at the right time in the right way.
What users say? “Envision has truly empowered me”, says Christiaan, a visually impaired student who studies at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. As a student, he is constantly having to read all kinds of text from books, assignments, notes and presentations, which are not always accessible. “I am really impressed by its ability to read text”, he says, “And the best thing about Envision is that it’s multi-lingual. So it automatically detects the language and reads it out in the correct voice”.
https://youtu.be/ws-d8umi6eA
Bob Offereins, a 33-year old visually impaired user of Envision, feels Envision is making the society more inclusive. “I like it because when you are visually impaired you do not want to ask for help all the time”, he says, “Envision is just something you can install on your phone which makes it easy to carry around. You don’t need to grab another piece of equipment to do all the things someone without a visual impairment could do.”
