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Apple announces new accessibility features, including eye tracking

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Re: Apple announces new accessibility features, including eye tracking

#181

Post by JimDabell »

Baeocystin wrote: post #176

One of the most important accessibility features they could bring back are physical home buttons on at least one ipad. I am completely serious. I work with a lot of older adults, many of whom have cognitive challenges, and the lack of a physical button to press as an escape hatch when they get confused is the #1 stumbling block by a mile.

It’s not physical, but if the problem is they need something visible rather than a gesture, then you can put an always-on menu button on the screen that has a home button in.

https://support.apple.com/en-sg/111794

Re: Apple announces new accessibility features, including eye tracking

#182

Post by tootie »

bogtog wrote: post #161
tootie wrote: post #16

Quibble but this isn't "eye tracking" it's "gaze tracking". Eye tracking is detecting where your eyes are. Gaze tracking is what you're looking at.

Where are you getting this language point from? If I look up any company selling "eye trackers", their products are all meant to track where you're looking, e.g., https://www.tobii.com/

Interesting. I picked it up working with Tobii devices a few years ago actually. I guess they updated their vocabulary.

Re: Apple announces new accessibility features, including eye tracking

#183

Post by eviks »

anyfoo wrote: post #164

I have better than 20/20 vision (yes, really) and now mobility problems, but there are some macOS accessibility features that I love. One is Zoom: I hold down two modifier keys and scroll, and can instantly zoom in to any part of the screen. It is extremely smooth, the more you scroll the higher you zoom, instantly and with high frame rate. Great when you want to show someone something, or just zoom into a detail of…

It's better to have an easy way to hold a mouse button via keyboard with your left hand and continue to use one finger on the touchpad rather than do the whole three fingers to drag

Re: Apple announces new accessibility features, including eye tracking

#184

Post by foooorsyth »

lowkey wrote: post #179
Baeocystin wrote: post #176

One of the most important accessibility features they could bring back are physical home buttons on at least one ipad. I am completely serious. I work with a lot of older adults, many of whom have cognitive challenges, and the lack of a physical button to press as an escape hatch when they get confused is the #1 stumbling block by a mile.

I agree. I have a last gen base iPad with Touch ID and a home button. I am pretty tech savvy but actually prefer this form factor.

Touch ID is so drastically superior to Face ID in so many common “iPad scenarios”, eg. laying in bed with face partially obscured.

I don’t understand Apple’s intense internal focus on FaceID only. FaceID with TouchID as an option when a device is flat on the table or when your face is obscured is so much nicer.

Re: Apple announces new accessibility features, including eye tracking

#185

Post by Tijdreiziger »

vasco wrote: post #144
uoaei wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Accessibility isn't just about possibility, it's about ergonomics. You could integrate a differential equation by lining rocks up in a large desert as a computer, but you wouldn't say that solution is "accessible" to a human in the same way it would be with a CPU, a monitor, and functioning sight.

Ah, so people are annoyed that the zoom isn't appropriate by default, I get it. Thanks I was getting extremely confused. That being said I use different zoom levels for different websites, and the browser remembers them for me, I like how the feature works right now, and I have loads of myopia. If people made it "big enough" to be inclusive by default in some websites I'd have to zoom out as well. So my point is that…

I mean, even at 175% zoom, the vote arrows are pretty close together on a touchscreen. And I’m barely 30.

I always end up double-checking whether the ‘unvote’ link is present. If it says ‘undown’, I know I’ve made a mistake (or vice versa).

Re: Apple announces new accessibility features, including eye tracking

#186

Post by sleepingreset »

foooorsyth wrote: post #184
lowkey wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I have a last gen base iPad with Touch ID and a home button. I am pretty tech savvy but actually prefer this form factor.

Touch ID is so drastically superior to Face ID in so many common “iPad scenarios”, eg. laying in bed with face partially obscured. I don’t understand Apple’s intense internal focus on FaceID only. FaceID with TouchID as an option when a device is flat on the table or when your face is obscured is so much nicer.

FaceID builds profitable user habit loops. More real-estate on the screen to show things, easier to thoughtlessly purchase things if your password is a glance at the camera, etc.

I don't think this is a user-focused decision, I believe it's a profit-focused one.

Re: Apple announces new accessibility features, including eye tracking

#187

Post by MBCook »

slau wrote: post #96
skunkworker wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same, a family member send a photo while I was driving and over Carplay it was described fairly accurately.

It’s sometimes awesome, and often extremely basic. “Contact sent you a picture of a group of people at an airport”. Amazing. “Contact sent you a screenshot of a social media post”. Useless. We know iOS can select text in pictures, so Siri can clearly read it. It knows it’s SoMe, so why not give me the headline?

I’m hoping this shows up in iOS 18.

Re: Apple announces new accessibility features, including eye tracking

#189

Post by anyfoo »

eviks wrote: post #183
anyfoo wrote: post #164

I have better than 20/20 vision (yes, really) and now mobility problems, but there are some macOS accessibility features that I love. One is Zoom: I hold down two modifier keys and scroll, and can instantly zoom in to any part of the screen. It is extremely smooth, the more you scroll the higher you zoom, instantly and with high frame rate. Great when you want to show someone something, or just zoom into a detail of…

It's better to have an easy way to hold a mouse button via keyboard with your left hand and continue to use one finger on the touchpad rather than do the whole three fingers to drag

Not for me, no.

But sounds like something accessibility options may also provide, and I can see how it may be better for a lot of people.

Re: Apple announces new accessibility features, including eye tracking

#190

Post by Tijdreiziger »

happyopossum wrote: post #157
Tagbert wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this is at all like the eye tracking in Vision Pro, it is only available to the OS and apps are not given access to the data.

Until the EU comes in and forces them to ‘open up’ the functionality in the name of ‘fairness’…

If you look at the current things the EU has forced them to open up (app distribution and NFC payments), both of them are things that Apple was already actively monetizing.

To compare this to a non-monetized accessibility feature is a bit disingenuous.

The whole notion of ‘fairness’ is that gatekeepers should allow others to compete on even footing. That can be fulfilled by granting EITHER everybody OR nobody access to the market (but not: only yourself).

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