Description of App
Seeing AI is a free app that narrates the world around you. Designed for the blind and low vision community, this ongoing research project harnesses the power of AI to open up the visual world and describe nearby people, text and objects.
Optimized for use with VoiceOver, the app enables you to recognize:
• Short Text - Speaks text as soon as it appears in front of the camera.
• Documents - Provides audio guidance to capture a printed page, and recognizes the text, along with its original formatting.
• Products - Scans barcodes, using audio beeps to guide you; hear the name, and package information when available. (works with iPhone 6 and later)
• People - Saves people’s faces so you can recognize them, and get an estimate of their age, gender, and emotions.
• Scenes (early preview) - Hear an overall description of the scene captured.
• Currency - Recognizes currency notes.
• Color - Identifies color.
• Handwriting - Reads handwritten text.
• Light - Generates an audible tone corresponding to the brightness in the surroundings.
• Images in other apps - Just tap “Share” and “Recognize with Seeing AI” to describe images from Mail, Photos, Twitter, and more.
Seeing AI is built to help you achieve more by leveraging the power of the cloud and artificial intelligence. As the research progresses, more channels may be added.
Check out tutorials with this YouTube playlist: http://aka.ms/SeeingAIPlaylist
Visit http://SeeingAI.com for more details
Available in 35 countries including the U.S., Canada, European Union, U.K., Australia, India, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore. Coming soon to more countries.
Languages supported – English
Supported on iPhone 5C, 5S and later; best performance with iPhone 6S and later models.
Questions, feedback or feature requests? Email us at seeingai @ microsoft.com.
Comments
moving around
I noticed that when I try to go to color and flick I got a pop that provided info about different itoms. It is hard to move to the different itoms such as money, doc and color unless you do it very, very fast.
I guess those are the
I guess those are the different tutorials for each mode. They will pop up only the first time.
Onboarding tips appear only the first time
Hi Holger, as Raul mentioned, the onboarding tips only appear the first time. So should be smooth to go between different channels after the first time use.
What's New in Version 3.0
Version 3.0
•Explore photos by touch: This new feature allows you to explore how objects in a photo are arranged. Select "Explore Photo" from the Scene channel, photo browser, or when recognizing photos from other apps. Then, move your finger over the screen to hear where objects are located.
•All new iPad support.
•Get faster access to your favorite features by customizing the order in which channels are shown.
•On the Person channel, you can now teach Seeing AI to recognize someone new, directly from the main screen.
•When recognizing photos from other apps, you will now hear the processing sound as in the main app.
Sounds like this could be a very interesting update. I am eager to hear peoples' opinions about the new version.
Just Updated
Looks like my iPhone just updated this app automatically. Looks pretty cool. My sighted neighbor across the hall has an iPad, and we always hang out together. I've been talking to him about all the tech I use, so think I'll tell him about this update to Seeing AI so that he can check it out if he so chooses. This app seems to be getting better all the time!
More Practice Today
Hi everyone. I just wanted to say that I practiced with this app some more just a bit ago. I got it to successfully scan and read the labels on some food items in one of my cabinets. It seemed to do better on boxes and canned items than on the rice packets that I have. I was able to tap on "More Info" and it read off the box instructions on a box of long-grain rice with chicken and jalapeno. I also got something in Spanish when scanning another much smaller packet, but my Spanish is rather rusty so I don't know what it said. But this app is indeed getting better all the time. I also like the sharing options that are available.
Thank you Microsoft!!!!
Hello everyone. I have been using this app since day 1 and there is nothing like this app. I had switched to android a few months ago and this is one app I dearly missed on android. So when I got the chance I got an iPhone 11 and seeing AI is amazing on this thing. Plus it works very well in the dark. I was still able to read the screen on a car stereo thanks to Seeing AI.
Artificial Intelligence
I opened this app for the first time in a few weeks and it seems it now has a load of AI type things built in, presumably from Seeing AI. For example, in Scene view I can take a photo, it tells me something very brief, and I can go to More Info and then get a Seeing-AI style description. I couldn't find out how to ask more questions. I can't remember what else it said it had added AI to as I somewhat dismissed the starting banner a bit quickly. I will investigate further time/memory permitting.
Anyone else played with these new features?
I’ve given it a go.
The accuracy isn’t anywhere close to Be My AI yet but it’s great there is competition. The more options there are, the quicker we’ll hopefully have a FaceTime call with an AI which is what I’m excited for. An AI with access to my camera, location data, mapping and a conversational interface. It’s coming but who knows when.
Yes.
An AI with map access would be amazing. It could really help us.
Folow up questions
From the documentation that I've read, you can't yet ask follow up questions of pictures. You can, however, ask follow up questions about a document scan. For example, if you scan a menu, you can presumably ask"tell me about the vegetarian options".
Surprising that the app doesn't have the same capabilities as Be My eyes since Microsoft uses Open Ai's chat GPT. Maybe they are just rolling out features slowly.
--Pete
Very Cool...
I just updated and took a picture of a scene. It showed my bookshelf and said it also saw a blue yoga matt. A neighbor previously informed me that my yoga matt was blue, but it was good to get that verification. All these OCR options that are coming out really make for some fun and inclusive times!
AI Precious Moments
I am so grateful for apps like Seeing AI and Be My AI, and the future of AI in general. Last year I had to retire my Seeing Eye Dog. He is getting old, and has developed acute arthritis in his hips.
Without giving too much personal info, I live in a high-rise apartment building, and unfortunately he could no longer do stairs. Of course we have elevators, but I like stairs.
I'm dirty like that.
Anyway, I have a number of photos of him on my iPhone, dating all the way back to 2016, and now I am finally able to get some really good detail from said photos, ya know, whenever I feel like reminiscing.
I still get to visit my dog from time to time, I adopted him out to a family with 3 teenaged girls, who spoil him rotten. So I am looking forward to new photos as well. 😁
Now Available On Android!
https://accessibleandroid.com/app/seeing-ai/
or for those who wish to grab it directly:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.seeingai
In short, acts similar to its IOS counterpart, though instead of using custom actions, Microsoft goes the tabs route found among said main screen (or switch between them via two-finger swipe left/right). Though someone could request custom actions via the 'Feedback' option found in the menu in the top left corner of the window I suppose, where ya can also find Settings.
All elements labeled, all features available (that aren't Lidar exclusive). You are also able to access features directly via Context menu from home/app draw, or by assigning said shortcut)s to a button/fingerprint action depending on the OS software used (such as Routines Plus via Samsung 1UI among the Goodlock suite of modules or Macrodroid for any other phone).
If you're wanting to use Seeing AI on an image that's in focus, long-press on said image and choose the 'share' item (or Share via). If the Seeing AI option is not among the main share Sheet area, tap More>Edit and add Seeing AI to said space.
Enjoy!
That's amazing.
I honestly never thought it would be ported over but that's great!
I'm an Iphone user but there's so many apps on android that are on IOS these days that if I wanted to; i could probably switch with no issues.
iOS apps & Android apps
Today I had the privilege of playing around with a friends Pixel 8 Pro. I won't go into too much detail, because the overlords of AppleVis would smite me. 😱
However, I will say that, while it is pretty cool Seeing AI is on the Google Play Store, it is even cooler that as of Dec 4, Be My Eyes has started to go live with Be My AI for Android. 🤠
//Excerpt from an email from the CEO of Be My Eyes
Hi Brian,
We are thrilled to announce that Be My AI will soon be available to hundreds of thousands of Be My Eyes users on Android devices worldwide!
Starting from December 4th, Be My AI will be available for hundreds of thousands of Be My Eyes users worldwide. The full roll-out will take a few days, so be sure to keep your app updated so you will have access to Be My AI as soon as it is available to you.
//End excerpt
Re: Very Cool!
Though I've never used Android before, I have some friends who are on that platform. They are all fully sighted, but I think they could benefit from this. I'm thinking of one friend in particular, who might not actually use Android but I'm pretty sure he does. I'm referring to my personal assistant, who up until rather recently was my life-skills tutor. He's in a similar role now, but that's not the point of my reply. If he gets his hands on this, he'll no doubt get more of a taste of what it's like to be blind. Make no mistake: he's been great over the years. But he's not that great with technology and has even admitted that.
Spotlight with Saqib from Seeing AI by Microsoft
From episode 157 of the Blind Android Users Podcast (includes Android vs IOS specific app questions discussed among said crew mates):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlQcCc3TwL8
Seeing AI for Android feedback can be sent to:
seeingai@microsoft.com
, or via the feedback item within said application.
GPT-4o image descriptions
It would be really nice if Seeing AI was updated with the GPT-4o image descriptions, namely that they are much faster. As it is now, sometimes AI descriptions even time out, which is a shame. It would be nice if asking follow-up questions were supported in more languages as well.
Sharing Broken in Latest Version?
Hi again. I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed that the sharing functionality seems to be broken in the latest version of this app. Just a bit ago I attempted to scan a bottle of organic chocolate milk given to me by a neighbor. Another neighbor helped me locate the bar code, and then the app did the rest. I was able to read the ingredients, nutritional info and an allergy warning. However, it seems I can no longer share this info via any of the methods given in the share sheet. Be my Eyes seems to have this same functionality now, and it works great.