The Timaru Herald

Facebook becomes more blind-friendly

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Facebook is training its computers to become seeing-eye guides for the blind and visually impaired.

The feature, rolling out this week on Facebook’s iPhone app, interprets what’s in a picture using a form of artificial intelligen­ce that recognises faces and objects. The iPhone’s built-in screen reader, VoiceOver, must be turned on for Facebook’s photo descriptio­ns to be read. For now, the feature will only be available in English.

The descriptio­ns initially will be confined to a vocabulary of 100 words in a restrictio­n that will prevent the computer from providing a lot of details. For instance, the automated voice may only tell a user that a photo features three people smiling outdoors without adding that the trio also has drinks in their hands. Or it may say the photo is of pizza without adding that there’s pepperoni and olives on top of it.

Facebook is being careful with the technology, called ‘‘automatic alternativ­e text’’, in an attempt to avoid making a mistake that offends its audience. Google learned the risks of technology last year when an image recognitio­n feature in its Photos app labelled a black couple as gorillas, prompting the company to issue an apology.

Eventually, though, Facebook hopes to refine the technology so it provides more precise descriptio­ns and even answers questions that a user might pose about a picture. Facebook also plans to turn on the technology for its Android app and make it available through web browsers visiting its site.

The Menlo Park, California, company is trying to ensure the world’s nearly 300 million blind and visually impaired people remain interested in its social network as a steadily increasing number of photos appear on its service. On an average day, Facebook says more than 2 billion photos are posted on its social network and other apps that it owns, a list that includes Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp.

Until now, people relying on screen readers on Facebook would only hear that a person had shared a photo without any elaboratio­n.

The vocabulary of Facebook’s photo-recognitio­n program includes ‘‘car’’, ‘‘sky’’, ‘‘dessert’’, ‘‘baby’’, ‘‘shoes’’, and, of course, ‘‘selfie’’.

 ??  ?? In order to make its app more appealing to people with vision impairment or blindness, Facebook is rolling out changes that will let people hear a descriptio­n of photos.
In order to make its app more appealing to people with vision impairment or blindness, Facebook is rolling out changes that will let people hear a descriptio­n of photos.

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