SEEING AI

SEVERAL smartphone apps purport to see for anyone with a visual impairment. But none does it as well as Microsoft’s new Seeing AI, which is currently available on the iOS App Store for free. The ‘channels’ are lined up at the bottom of the app’s screen and users can either memorise them or use the iPhone’s accessibility features to speak out the button being tapped. It can read short text such as the writing on a sign. For a whole page, there is a Document mode, which seems to have a problem as it incorrectly believes that the phone is in silent mode. Seeing AI can also look at currency notes and recognise the denominations, read a barcode and tell the user what the product is, describe the ‘scene’ in front and recognise a colour, depending on the light. It can even recognise faces if these are ‘taught’ to the app.