A blind user connects to the Aira visual interpretation service to receive sighted guidance through ... [+]
Announcing a new partnership today, Envision and Aira have teamed up to create a unique combination of assistive technology with the potential to enhance the independence of blind people in unprecedented ways.
Netherlands-based Envision makes a smartphone app that is integrated with Google Glass enabling blind users to receive audio descriptions of objects or text that the camera is pointing at using computer vision, AI or video calls with sighted guides.
California-based Aira provides a professional visual interpretation service that connects blind or severely sight-impaired users to a remote operator via the Aira app for scene and object description or directions.
Both companies leverage rapidly maturing technologies that are slowly transforming the options for blind people to more fully engage with their environment – namely the minification of cameras for both glasses and phones alongside the ubiquity of reliable high-throughput data networks.
The collaboration of the two companies appears intuitively like a match made in heaven.
Though a marriage of complimenting emergent technologies – the beauty lies in the fact that their union is cemented through the oldest and still most powerful accessibility tool of all – specialized human assistance.
Accessibility with privacy and wearability
Visual interpretation services are, by no means, an entirely new phenomenon with providers like Be My Eyes launching their app in 2015.
The technology was also central to the plotline of the home invasion thriller See For Me which was released earlier this year and featured Skyler Davenport as a young blind woman undertaking a house-sitting job in an isolated location.
Nevertheless, phone-based services do have certain limitations when it comes to both safety and usability due to the user either having to hold their phone camera out in front of them or have it strapped to their chest to receive the sighted guidance.
As Envision’s solution is paired with Google Glass, wearers will now be able to enjoy a hands-free sighted guidance experience across a wide variety of public locations, as well as at home – offering users far greater freedom and mobility whilst also being safer and less conspicuous.
At the time of its launch almost two years ago, Envision incorporated an “ally” feature within their app to connect users to nominated friends and family members who could provide sighted guidance through the phone’s camera or the smart glasses.
This latest partnership with Aira is an extension of this idea but can fill in for occasions where friends and family are not contactable as an Aira subscription provides 24/7 support.
More importantly, perhaps, both companies have successfully identified that there are likely to be multiple situations in which placing a video call to friends or family members is simply undesirable.
Consumers with disabilities are no different from anybody else – they prefer choice and place a particular premium on independence.
Therefore, for a visually impaired person, successfully accomplishing a task where the guidance forms part of a professional subscription within their assistive technology toolkit is, at least in certain situations, likely to prove more satisfying than simply feeling they are being granted a favour by an associate.
"We all like to have a choice of people to go to when we need assistance. From professionally trained agents to family and friends. With the addition of Aira to the Envision Glasses we are delighted to not only be able to offer our customers that choice but also an easier, hands-free Aira experience." said Karthik Mahadevan, CEO and co-founder of Envision.
"This partnership provides people who are blind or have low vision with the ultimate technology and productivity tool to enhance independence and personal productivity as never before," added Troy Otillio, CEO, Aira Tech Corp.
Enhanced productivity
Though there may be privacy hurdles to overcome, one arena where the new solution may prove particularly beneficial is the workplace.
Blind people remain underemployed and while there are excellent assistive software solutions on the market to help blind workers be more productive, such as the JAWS screen reader – a central flaw persists.
Electronic documents and websites will only be accessible to the software if they have been built or coded accordingly and so, for blind employees, reduced productivity arising from access blocks are commonplace.
Leveraging sighted guidance that can be quick, reliable and easy to reach may at least provide a temporary means of attending to work-related tasks that are difficult for visually impaired workers – be they deciphering complex charts and graphs, traveling to an unfamiliar location or setting up new equipment.
There are already plans afoot to encourage organizations who are serious about their CSR footprint to consider investing in enterprise-level contracts:
Otillio said, “With Envision Glasses and Aira, innovative organizations are able to expand their candidate pool and realize their vision of having diversity and inclusivity embedded within the fabric of their workforce.”
Mahadevan added: “The partnership with Aira is just the start of a rollout of feature enhancements and third-party integrations that will enable the millions of low-vision and blind people to live a more independent life, albeit at home or work.”
If the glasses are just a platform to integrate the multiple exciting developments that computer vision and AI may bring to the blind over the coming years – then working out the role human vision still has to play represents an equally important stepping stone.
