The ability of mobile phones to aid vision impaired users is set to take a major step forward this summer with the introduction of a service that provides a bundle of applications for a monthly fee over the web.
The service, called LookTel, will enable people using smartphones running the Windows Mobile operating system to access software that recognises images, reads out text, and allows helpers to locate users via the global positioning system (GPS).
LookTel, which will cost around £25 per month to rent, is scheduled for launch in the UK by Sight and Sound at the Sight Village exhibition in Birmingham on July 13.
Image recognition, developed by LookTel’s parent company iVisit, is the key application and will allow blind people to identify nearby objects by pointing at them with their phone’s camera.
LookTel’s image recognition system accesses a library of images stored on a user’s PC at home or on host machines run by other organisations and looks for images that match those it is picking up.
Once the ‘artificial vision’ system recognises an object, it reads out a text tag or plays a pre-recorded message. Libraries are built up by photographing objects from several angles and either keying in or speaking the tags.
LookTel also incorporates a text reader allowing users to get access to print media.
The application, which is based on existing software from video conferencing company iVisit, has been under development by 200 blind and vision impaired people in the US for the past year.
In an exclusive demonstration of LookTel to Ability, the software identified different cans of soup and distinguished between banknotes; reading out tags that had been keyed into a computer running remotely.
Recognition took place in a few seconds, although the software did have difficulty identifying items when crucial information was missing.
For example, when the system failed to see the figure on a £5 note it referred to it as both £5 and £10, until it got a proper reading.
“The customer-base we are going for is very demanding,” admits Glenn Tookey, chief executive of Sight and Sound.
“The service is about providing an independent environment where blind people can integrate more into the world. Thousands of blind people will have access to LookTel in the UK.”
LookTel is also designed to link blind users with sighted helpers, allowing them to talk to each other and share live video pictures from a smartphone camera. In this way a blind user who is lost can get directions and help in recognising objects.
The service uses Google Maps and smartphone GPS systems to locate the whereabouts of a user who is lost.