Artificial Intelligence App Helps Blind People
From: Computerworld Australia - 07/10/2012
By: Stephanie McDonald 

Researchers at the University of Auckland and the Auckland University of
Technology have developed MobileEye, a smartphone application that uses
artificial intelligence (AI) to help blind people make better visual sense of
the world around them. The app enables visually impaired users to take a
photo of their surroundings and it then verbally describes what it sees to
the user. AI is used to detect and analyze colors, text, darkness, and
brightness before sending back a verbal description of the photo. "There are
many things that computers or artificial intelligence can do, so by using
computer algorithms you can get some information about an image," says
MobileEye team leader Aakash Polra. When the image cannot be analyzed, it is
sent to a human helper, such as friends on Facebook or volunteers, who
identify the image and then send verbal descriptions to the user. The app was
recently trialed by about 20 users at the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the
Blind. "We have been in constant touch with the users and getting their
constant feedback and improving the product as we go," Polra says. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/430055/artificial_intelligence_app_helps_blind_people/

Links:
AUT and Auckland Uni students win Microsoft Imagine Cup with "Mobile Eye"
http://m.nbr.co.nz/article/aut-and-auckland-uni-students-win-microsoft-imagine-cup-mobile-eye-ck-117780

Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind
http://www.rnzfb.org.nz/

Mobile Eye (video 1:33)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx-XAu252Tw&feature=plcp

MobileEye
http://www.mobileeye.org

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Artificial intelligence app helps blind people
From: ComputerWorld - 07/10/2012
By: Stephanie McDonald

A team of university students from the University of Auckland and Auckland
University of Technology have created a smartphone app which uses artificial
intelligence to help blind people make better visual sense of the world.  

Read the entire article at:
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/430055/artificial_intelligence_app_helps_blind_people/