Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: I created a PoC for live descriptions of the surroundings for the blind

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–27 of 27 posts

Re: Show HN: I created a PoC for live descriptions of the surroundings for the blind

#21

Post by MrVandemar »

o40 wrote: post #18
MrVandemar wrote: post #16

Did you consult with your target audience — ie. blind or low-vision people — before or during development?

Yes. My partner is visually impaired so that is one of the reasons why I think this is interesting to investigate. The current solution is way to "janky" to actually use, but gives insight in the problem to solve. My hope is that there will be "cheap" camera glasses that you can use different services for image descriptions. There is a company called "Be My Eyes" that is developing an AI tool for image descriptions,…

I commend you then. Accessibility is unfortunatley too often done without consultation with the community it is supposed to benefit.

Re: Show HN: I created a PoC for live descriptions of the surroundings for the blind

#22

Post by Someone »

> It would be nice to have an cheap and open source alternative to the currently available products, where the user gets fed information rather than continuously requesting it

I think you need to triple-check whether users actually find that nice.

Assuming that keeping the text limited to what interests the user will stay an unsolved problem for the foreseeable future, I guesspect that they prefer a middle ground where they aren’t continuously bombarded with text, but it’s easy to get that flow going. For example, having that text feed on only while a button is being held down.

I guesspect that because I think users would soon be fed up with an assistent that says there’s a painting on the wall or a church tower in the distance every time they turn their head.

Both can be useful information, but not when you hear them for the thousandth times while in your own house/garden.

Re: Show HN: I created a PoC for live descriptions of the surroundings for the blind

#23

Post by o40 »

Someone wrote: post #22

> It would be nice to have an cheap and open source alternative to the currently available products, where the user gets fed information rather than continuously requesting it I think you need to triple-check whether users actually find that nice. Assuming that keeping the text limited to what interests the user will stay an unsolved problem for the foreseeable future, I guesspect that they prefer a middle ground whe…

Yes, repeated information is not great in many cases. A more advanced system could possibly keep track of which information is new and which information is already known to the user.

I wanted to create something opposite of needing to say "Hey Google, describe what is in front of me" or similar. Also a point was to see how cheap/simple you can go and still get valuable information.

Re: Show HN: I created a PoC for live descriptions of the surroundings for the blind

#25

Post by biosboiii »

tr33house wrote: post #20
biosboiii wrote: post #19

Check out my reverse-engineering/cracking of Microsoft's App just doing that, SeeingAI. https://altayakkus.substack.com/p/you-wouldnt-download-an-ai

This was a great read. At this point, any org should assume on-device models are public

Thanx! Yeah, they should :) Would love to do this with CoreML on Apple devices, but my newest iPhone is a 7.

But if you subscribe, you may see me doing the same with a surveillance camera soon(isch) :)

Post reply on HN