Description of App
LetSee is an app for vision.
It integrates different visual recognition and detection functions for visually impaired people. The basic operating principle for most functions is super easy: just point the camera towards the target and wait until you hear the result.
To cycle through functions swipe sideways, to enter the menu swipe up.
*Money reader*
It recognizes banknotes of several currencies, including US Dollars, Euros, Chinese Yuan, Hungarian Forints and South Korean Won, and we keep adding new currencies.
*Plastic card recognizer*
You have to register your own cards through the menu. Thereafter it works the same way as the money reader does. Card images are not stored and no sensitive information is saved, only the general design of the card is recognized.
*Light measurement tool*
This is not a recognizer function. Instead it measures the light level to let you find light sources, such as spotlights, screens, or even windows. The stronger the light the higher the pitch of the tone you hear. You may also get a percentage value by tapping the screen. Different sound scales can be selected in the menu. On iPhone light measurement is based on your back camera.
You might need some practice first. We advise you to place the camera of your smartphone onto the object you want to recognize and slowly start pulling it upwards. Once you reach a proper distance the recognition result will be announced. It can also be helpful to slightly and slowly tilt, pan, and turn your device.
Use this app at your own risk. Keep in mind that even at 99.9% accuracy machines can still make mistakes. It might make sense to wait for a few announcements for each object.
Your data is yours. Although we use your camera to recognize banknotes and cards from your surroundings, we do not collect or send these images anywhere. Processing is also done locally on your smartphone, thus no internet connection or data roaming is needed.
Comments
Great app
This app fills a gap, it can recognize my credit cards as well as my currency. I like it because now I can use only one app when I'm going through my wallet. It seems to be fast and accurate, when I recognized Hungarian Forints, it even told me when a note was part of the old series. It is important because soon people won't be able to pay with the older notes. Since I often use different currencies, I'd be curious which counntries' money can the app recognize.
Re: #1 Great app
Hi Tom!
We are pleased to read that you like LetSee and it makes your life easier. FYI: you can teach LetSee to recognize not only your credit cards, but any other card, just like your ID, driving licence, shopping cards, etc. It is important to note that LetSee does not save the picture or any sensitive details about your cards, it just learns to see enough to tell different cards apart.
At the moment LetSee can recognize 5 different currencies: US Dollar, Euro, Chinese Yuan, Hungarian Forint and South Korean We hope to expand the list soon We will keep you posted about it.
If you have any further questions about the app, please do not hesitate to let us know.
Enjoy LetSee!
Kind regards,
LetSee Team
driving licences?
Forgive me for saying so, but I would hope a driver could recognise his driving licence without the assistance of an app like this? if not, I think I'll walk, thanks.
Suggestion
Cool app but it would be cool if the app could use Voiceover instead of being voiced by the default IOS voice. Just a thought.
idea for currencies
you should add other courencies such as courencies from cnorth america, south america, amung other places
Re: #3 driving licences?
Hi,
Thank you for your comment, good point. It was probably not the best example, we didn’t mean to offend anyone, and we are sorry if we did. However, there are numerous places, where driving licences are the primary ID documents, which are referred to by many as a non-driving licence or a non-driver ID. And in some cases you might have to handle cards from another family member. :) With the upcoming era of self-driving cars, it will be interesting to see whether you will need some kind of licence to operate such a vehicle.
Anyway, LetSee aims to help in recognizing all sorts of plastic cards you might have in your wallet.
Best regards,
Viktor
@LetSee
Drivers Licences
Hi. I think it's great this app can recognize drivers licences or staate IDs. In the event I need to replace my state ID online and my fiance is not available to read me the number, I can use this app to do so.
drivers' licences
For the record, I was not in the least offended. On the contrary, I was amused.
Card Recognizer
Hello. I downloaded the app and tried testing it with my debit/ATM card. I registered the card as a new card. When I tried testing the readability of my debit/ATM card via the card recognizer I was unable to have it read the info displayed on my card such as the card number, exp date, etc. Instead, the app just read the card name"ex. Jane
" doe" Is this app only able to recognize credit cards or can it also recognize ATM cards as well?
Thanks.
Re: #7 Drivers Licences, #9 Card Recognizer
Hi Ann Marie,
Thank you for using LetSeeApp! We are sorry if the app description was not clear enough. At the moment the card recognizer is only intended to tell you the name you chose at the time of registration to let you find the one you are looking for. In the future we might consider implementing something along the lines you thought of, but it also poses a lot of questions. For instance, due to security reasons the app stores no image of the cards or any sensitive data required for online transactions.
Best regards,
Viktor
@LetSee
Re: #5 idea for currencie
Hi Igna,
Thank you for your comment. We hope to expand the list soon We will keep you posted about it.
Can you tell us which is the one you miss the most?
Best regards,
Viktor
@LetSee
Re: #4 Suggestion
Hi Jeff,
Thank you for your comment. We had several reasons to go with the Text-to-speech engine instead of VoiceOver. Did you find something odd about the default iOS voice, or did you face any difficulties or why would you prefer VoiceOver? BTW, the Text-to-speech engine is also customizable.
Could you tell us where did it cause you difficulties that we use Text-to-speech instead of Voiceover?
Best regards,
Viktor
@LetSee
Thanks for the explination.
Thanks for the explination. I understand why you wouldn't want the card recognizer to read card numbers and the like.
Best.
Card information
Personally I'm happy the app doesn't store my card information. For doing it, I would prefer to have a secure registration process. However, where I see the advantage of this appis that it works out of the box. I use 1Password to keep track of my cards, which is very accessible. Most of the times, my problem is telling cards apart which feel exactly the same, which this app helps me with.
Any object recognition and TTS engine
Hello Viktor,
it would be great if the app was able to learn and recognise any custom object, not just plastic or other kind of cards. For instance, I would use it much more often to teach it to recognise packaged grocery products like tea boxes, cans, yogurts, or even clothes having a specific pattern on them, and maybe also CDs or DVDs.
Regarding the choice to use text to speech engine instead of relying on VoiceOver, I would also rather prefer VoiceOver. It's quite cumbersome that you have to turn VoiceOver off and on when you want to do something in Settings, like adding a new credit card. But even if the app was completely operated by the TTS engine, I would prefer VoiceOver because VoiceOver gestures are generally known as opposed to this app specific gestures.
Anyway, thank you very much for this app. I believe it has a good potential if the points I mentioned are implemented.
Best regards
Adam
Re: #15 Any object recognition and TTS engine
Hi Adam,
Thank you for your review and suggestions and sorry for my delayed answer.
We are aware that other recognition functions are of high interest, and we are working hard to improve the app in this regard. Please understand that some use cases are easier to implement than others, and before we release a new feature, we have to make sure it works well.
For the views where the app uses the TTS engine, Voiceover is blocked, so there should be no need to turn it off and then on again, you can just leave Voiceover on. Should it misbehave for you, please let me know. We had several reasons to stick to the TTS engine in a number of cases, but we would like to minimize the inconvenience due to this, and we are open to suggestions regarding the gestures. Let me know what your pain points are, and if you have any concrete ideas. You can also write me privately.
(Just a hint: if the speech speed differs and this is what disturbs you, you can adjust it in the app menu.)
Best regards,
Viktor
@LetSee
The app is not responding
Hello Viktor,
I have now tried the app for the second time and I am not able to do anything with it. Having VoiceOver turned on, whenever I swipe up, right, down or left, anything what I hear is the "glass knocking" nothing found sound. I am able to opereate the app only when VoiceOver is turned off.
re: #17 The app is not responding
Hi Adam,
Sorry for the inconvenience. We couldn’t reproduce the issue you described. Could you please send us the following information here or by email. That will help us to locate where the problem is:
-iPhone model
-iOS version
-LetSeeApp version (you can find it in the app menu on the last line)
-if you know which function (which view) is active when experiencing the problem
-how many fingers do you use for the swipes
Thanks,
Viktor
@LetSee
The problem was in the rotor set to words
Hello Viktor,
I've worked out that the problem was in that the rotor was set to words. Setting it to direct touch has made the app to start responding correctly.
Best regards
Reply: card text
If you need to recognize the numbers and text on an ID or credit card instead of being able to tell one card from another, as this app does, then I recommend VoiceDream Scanner. It has gotten an amazing amount of info off of my plastic cards. All the other OCR options that are good enough to have any chance of doing so are cloud-based and therefore are not safe for this purpose.
One of the reasons why I
One of the reasons why I prefer VoiceOver as opposed to a self-voicing way to get information, is that it provides BRAILLE SUPPORT!!! Whatever VoiceOver receives can be rendered IN BRAILLE, thus helping people with hearing impairments. I do not download any apps that are self voicing because I don't get the same quality of information, and I have to learn specific gestures, in some cases, to use the app. In edition, my phone slows down a bit. I will ALWAYS advocate for information being sent to VoiceOver when possible to provide the most access to the most people. Thank you for trying to fill the gap. Distinguishing amongst cards is a problem, and if the incorrect one is used, there are ramifications, to be SURE.