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

Apple announces new accessibility features, including eye tracking

apple.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 300 posts

Re: Apple announces new accessibility features, including eye tracking

#231

Post by nindalf »

klausa wrote: post #223
burntwater wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Guaranteed that marketers are salivating at the idea of eye tracking on apps and website. It's an amazing feature that absolutely needs to be gatekept.

I wonder if it'll use the same architecture as visionOS; where the vision tracking events and UI affordances are processed and composited out-of-process; with the app never seeing them.

That's probably how it'll go because it's the path of least resistance. A button will already have a listener for tap, so the OS translates the vision tracking into a "tap" and triggers the relevant code. There's no point telling the app about vision tracking because apps wouldn't already have a handler for that event. And for privacy reasons, there's no need to start now.

Re: Apple announces new accessibility features, including eye tracking

#232

Post by klausa »

nindalf wrote: post #231
klausa wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if it'll use the same architecture as visionOS; where the vision tracking events and UI affordances are processed and composited out-of-process; with the app never seeing them.

That's probably how it'll go because it's the path of least resistance. A button will already have a listener for tap, so the OS translates the vision tracking into a "tap" and triggers the relevant code. There's no point telling the app about vision tracking because apps wouldn't already have a handler for that event. And for privacy reasons, there's no need to start now.

iPadOS has hover states and pointer events; those could be arguably trigerred by eye tracking.

Re: Apple announces new accessibility features, including eye tracking

#233

Post by gield »

devinprater wrote: post #3

I wonder what new voices will be added to VoiceOver? We blind people never, ever thought Eloquence, an old TTS engine from 20 years ago now, would ever come to iOS. And yet, here it is in iOS 17. I wouldn't be surprised to see DecTalk, or more Siri voices. More Braille features is amazing, and they even mentioned the Mac! VoiceOver for Mac is notoriously never given as much love as VoiceOver for iOS is, so most blind…

>I'm hoping that, one day, we get a tutorial for VoiceOver

Maybe it's not feasible for you but if you're ever near an Apple Store, you could definitely call them and ask whether they have an accessibility expert you could talk to. In the Barcelona Apple Store for example, there is a blind employee who is an expert at using Apple's accessibility features on all their devices. He loves explaining his tips and tricks to anyone who needs to.

Re: Apple announces new accessibility features, including eye tracking

#235

Post by kalkr »

sandspar wrote: post #229

It's funny how the post is about enhanced surveillance technology and the text sentiment of the comment thread is overwhelmingly positive. Surveillance technology: >:( Surveillance technology with the word "accessibility" in the title: :)

of course it’s surveillance technology.

an iphone constantly broadcasts your location to third parties, can deduce where you work and live, understands the unique shape of your face, has a built-in microphone and multiple kinds of cameras, stores all of your conversations, stores all of your photos, stores your health information, can figure out when you go to bed.. all on a completely closed and proprietary operating system.

it’s like asking “why hasn’t anyone mentioned that we’re all using a website right now”

Re: Apple announces new accessibility features, including eye tracking

#237

Post by yurishimo »

teekert wrote: post #228
rootusrootus wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people never really learn how to use one-pedal driving, so they end up just going back and forth between accelerating and decelerating. That'll make me motion sick in a hurry, and I bet that is fairly universal (among people prone to motion sickness in cars, that is). So in that sense, any EV or hybrid is potentially a problem, depending on the driver.

Ah yes, I never get motion sick, except for when I'm in the car with just such a driver: A person with sine-foot.

This is giving me flashbacks to the time I took an uber home from the airport in Dallas. 25 minutes of an older gentlemen (65ish) just modulating between gas pedal and brake pedal the entire time. It was awful and I wish I wasn't such a coward at the time and had told him after he dropped me off.

Re: Apple announces new accessibility features, including eye tracking

#239

Post by cainxinth »

MagicMoonlight wrote: post #234

This is why Apple is the best. They’ll make features like this because it’s the right thing to do, even if it won’t really make any difference to 99.99% of their customers. They really earn consumer loyalty.

This was the right thing to do, but I doubt “the right thing to do” was the primary motivator for it. This is smart marketing that helps position them as the more caring, inclusive, and capable tech brand. It also expands their reach more than a fraction of a percent. 13% of Americans have some form of disability.

Re: Apple announces new accessibility features, including eye tracking

#240

Post by wwilim »

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?

"Wife sent you a photo of a nude woman in the shower"
Post reply on HN