Google I/O 2018: Google's New Lookout App Helps Blind People See More Of The World Around Them

Google, as usual, has been working on quite a few things over the past year, not all of which got announced during the I/O keynote on Tuesday. One of those is a truly meaningful app called Lookout, that helps the blind and visually impaired to discover the world around them.

According to Google there are 253 million blind or visually impaired people in the world. The company believes it has a moral responsibility as a tech company to use its advancements to help them become more independent and lead a more fulfilling life. That¡¯s where Lookout will come in when it launches to Android later this year.

Lookout helps by providing auditory cues to a user¡¯s environment, be it text, objects, or people. The app uses your smartphone¡¯s rear camera to identify important items in its field of view and relay that to you as audio cues. It can spot exit signs, bathroom locations, nearby people and obstacles, and can even read text off a book or notice board. In addition, the notifications are designed to be as unobtrusive as possible and requiring minimal interaction, so that it doesn¡¯t get in your way.

The app will offer four different modes to start with. ¡°Work and Play¡± is ideal for navigating places like offices shopping malls, and restaurants, while ¡°Home¡± can help you carry out chores around the house, cook a meal, and perhaps even get some dusting done. The ¡°Scan¡± mode takes a simple snapshot of text the camera is looking out and then reads it aloud, and ¡°Experiment¡± mode is for testing other upcoming features in beta..

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¡°When you select a specific mode, Lookout will deliver information that¡¯s relevant to the selected activity,¡± Google says. For instance, using the Home mode will help you find your couch, table, or other things, while Work and Play mode will help direct you to a nearby elevator, or to the building¡¯s exit. The best part is that the processing happens locally, so the app can be used without an Internet connection.

Lookout will launch to Android in the US later this year, and will hopefully make its way to the rest of the world soon after.