Louise Plunkett
AI helped visually impaired Louise Plunket
“AI has revolutionized my daily life,” says Louise Plunkett from Norwich.
Ms Plunkett suffers from a genetic eye condition called Stargardt disease, a rare condition that causes progressive vision loss which she says “impacts everything I do”.
“I can't recognize people, even my own husband or my children. When my children were younger, I had to teach them to come to me when I met them on the school playground.
Plunkett is comfortable using digital tools: her company advises businesses on how to ensure their online content is suitable for the visually impaired community.
She's been using services like Alexa, Google Home, and Siri for years, helping with tasks like setting alarms and checking the weather.
She now finds an assistant called Be My AI useful.
The app uses ChatGPT to generate and then read detailed descriptions of images.
“I’m a pretty stubborn person,” Ms. Plunkett says. “I don’t like asking for help or admitting that I need it, so using the AI tool is helpful when other humans aren’t around.”
She says she could use it to check which women's restrooms are there, read the ingredients on food packages or read a letter.
However, she believes that AI can sometimes be hit or miss. “The downside of AI is that it sometimes gives you too much detail. Sometimes you just want the basic information about what's in front of you, but it will go beyond that and deliver mood and emotion.
“For example, you could say 'a swirling carpet evoking memories of times gone by'. It feels like that's a step too far.”
Be My AI was developed by the Danish company Be My Eyes. Its original service connects human volunteers with its customers. Via their cell phone, the volunteers described what was in front of the person with vision problems.
However, some of its 600,000 users turn to their AI tool for help, says Jesper Hvirring Henriksen, chief technology officer.
“We have a woman who was one of our first users 10 years ago, and in the first six months (after Be My AI came out) she made over 600 image descriptions.”
He also discovers that people are using the app in ways they wouldn't have imagined. “We're seeing people using it to check photos sent to them on WhatsApp groups,” he says.
“Maybe they're not going to call another human every time to ask about a photo sent to a WhatsApp group, but they're using AI.”
Through my eyes
Be My Eyes connects volunteers with the visually impaired
As for where it might go in the future, he says live video streaming — with the technology depicting buildings and movements around them — might be one area they move into. “This will be a game changer. It's like having a little person in your shirt pocket all day to tell you what's going on.
Be My Eyes, which is free for users, makes money by listing businesses in its paid directory service where they can provide information and numbers to the blind and visually impaired community.
Mr Henrikson says AI will not replace the need for human connection.
“At Be My Eyes, people still choose to call on a volunteer. The blind population in the Western world is generally not young when they begin to experience vision loss…it is skewed more towards the older population and this (AI) could add further complexity later. Humans are faster and potentially more precise.
We walk
WeWalk is an AI-powered cane that detects obstacles and gives directions
Other companies also offer products to help visually impaired people.
Featuring a voice assistant, WeWalk is an AI-powered cane that detects obstacles and offers accessible navigation and live public transportation updates.
By connecting to a smartphone app with built-in mapping, it can show users where places of interest are, including where the nearest coffee shop is in more than 3,000 cities.
“The cane is very important to us, it makes navigation easier and is a very important symbol because it shows our independence and autonomy,” explains Gamze Sofuoğlu, Product Manager of WeWalk.
“Our latest version helps users navigate the cane through voice feedback, such as when, for example, take me home or to the nearest cafe, it starts navigating, and you can get information about public transport. You don't need to touch your phone. It offers freedom to blind and visually impaired people.
Ms. Sofuoğlu, who is blind, says she uses it in cities she has visited recently, such as Lisbon and Rome.
Robin Spinks, head of inclusive design at the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), and who is visually impaired, is a strong advocate of AI – he uses AI most of the time.
For example, he turns to ChatGPT to help him with his workflow, giving him a summary of progress in certain work-related areas, or even to help him plan a paddle boarding trip, and to the Google Gemini AI tool to help it locate items.
Last year, Conversational AI and GPT Chat were the focus, he says. He now says 2024 is the year of what he calls “multimodal AI.”
He goes on to say: “It could be showing videos and images, and being able to extract meaningful information and help you in exciting ways. »
He points to Google Gemini. “For example, with this you can record meetings and it helps you with your voice tags and minutes of a meeting, it's really useful and it's about making people's lives easier.”
Spinks says AI has transformed the lives of people who are blind or visually impaired.
“I sympathize with people who are really afraid of AI, but when you have a disability, if something can actually add value and be useful, it must be a good thing. The benefits are too great to ignore.
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