Technology has truly changed the way we live our lives, whether it is through smartphones or the internet.
However, for people with disabilities, technology is not so easily accessible -- just like many other things in life that other people take for granted.
?They cannot make the most of tech the same way we can, due to the challenges they face.?However, some tech companies have gone the extra mile to make technology accessible for all. Today, on the International Disability Day, we highlight some cool technology designed for the specially-abled.?
Developers at Microsoft created an app based on Artificial Intelligence that scans images and tells its user what is on those images. It uses machine learning to see what is on the image and tries to accurately detect the subjects on the frame. It tells this to the visually-impaired user, offering a seamless user experience.?
The app is available for free on iOS. It was first unveiled in 2016, but over the years AI has gotten more and more accurate.
Shopping on the internet is a boon for us. Looking at products right from our phone or computer and simply tapping to place an order without any hassles -- it is an amazing feeling. However, people who are visually impaired don't get a similar experience when shopping on such websites.
Chinese e-commerce website Taobao (part of the Alibaba Group) has introduced Optical CharacterRecognition (OCR) technology to its pages that uses an artificial intelligence-driven narrator thatreads text written on images. Since most product description is on those images, regular narration features don't work well. But Taobao's OCR is smarter and helps people with visual disability to shop with ease.?
Google Maps is a boon to navigate through streets you have never been to before. But if you cannot really look at those streets, finding the destination can get really difficult. To help people with visual disabilities, Google introduced detailed voice navigation to help them find their way safely and accurately.?
Apple¡¯s Catalina operating system on its Mac machines has revolutionised browsing for specially abled through the OS with the help of voice assistant, numbers and grids where a user can just say the grid with for the dialog box in it to get clicked.?
Today¡¯s phones have intuitive narrator modes to help people with blindness browse through the phone. However, it still possesses a major gap specifically Damo is Alibaba¡¯s Research Institute. They¡¯ve created a tactile silicon sheet that they¡¯ve stuck on to the phone¡¯s screen. This offers a clutter-free user experience when the phone is set in accessibility mode. It currently works with a bunch of Alibaba apps with more apps adding support to the smart touch.
Everyone loves to game -- whether on a console or on a PC. But for some, due to their physical disability, they aren¡¯t able to hold and use a controller like regular people. Microsoft has developed the Adaptive GamePad especially for them.
We love browsing through memes on the internet. But why should people be blindness kept away from this fun? Cole Gleason of the Carnegie Mellon University has created an app that is similar to AI for the Blind by Microsoft, but this AI system is built specifically for the memes.?
AI can automatically add this alt-text through prewritten templates after identifying the memes through optical character recognition techniques. This alt-text can then be read by existing assistive technologies. The team also prepared a sound library for those memes to better express the sentiments.
Severe sine injuries can leave patients with little or no motion -- leaving them to lead an assisted life.?
ReWalk has designed a wearable electronic exoskeleton (that looks a lot like what Warmachine wore after his incident in Captain America Civil War) that provides powered hip and knee motion to help patients not just stand upright and walk but also allow them to ascend and descend stairs. How cool is that?
While tech is known to be helpful in all walks of life, it is in such places where it truly makes a difference and helps making the lives of the people with challenges a little less challenging and a whole lot fun.