It’s a new light as the sun rises over Mount Hood in Oregon.
Photo: Daniel L. Berek, used with permission
Or chadash. That’s Hebrew for a new light. From Israel comes an intriguing assistive tech device named OrCam MyEye, recently updated to version 2.0.
OrCam MyEye, according to the manufacturer, “is a “wearable artificial-vision device designed to assist people who are blind, visually impaired, or have reading disabilities. The intuitive, lightweight smart camera instantly and discreetly reads printed and digital text aloud—from any surface, printed and digital alike—and recognizes faces, products, and money notes, all in real time.”
Looking like a USB flash drive, the little device contains a 12-megapixel camera, microphone, and recorder. MyEye attaches to a pair of glasses or can be hung from an available lanyard. OrCam MyEye’s camera can read back digital and print text, such as products in a supermarket or tasty items on a menu. In other stores, MyEye detects the color of clothing. What’s more, MyEye recognizes and identifies friends. To do so, the user points the camera at the person’s face and records their name into the built-in microphone.
With its database of a myriad of product bar-codes and colors, OrCam MyEye stores up to 150 of your favorite products; the camera then can scan the barcode and read the identity of the product aloud, but discretely. Says OrCam, MyEye “instantly communicating them through your own voice tag, enabling an independent shopping experience.”
In this space, we have profiled similar assistive technology products, including Microsoft’s Seeing AI app for iOS and Aira. The world of assistive technology for the blind and visually impaired continues to grow and flourish!
