Object Spotting App Help Visually Impaired to Recognize Surroundings

Aipoly, an image-recognition app, makes easier for people with visual disability to recognize their proximity. The users have to just point the camera on their phones for the app to identify the objects it sees and then show the object on the phone's display.

Run this app on your smartphone directly as it doesn't need active internet to work. As you move, the app recognizes the objects in your way without the need for clicking its picture.

According to the app developers, this can be a very helpful tool for people that are visually impaired and also for those who are trying to learn a new language.

The app was launched earlier this year for iPhone users by a startup of the same name based in Melbourne. Simon Edwardsson, cofounder of Aipoly, says that the app recognizes the images by using a machine-learning technique called deep learning, inspired by studies of the brain. The same technology is used by the likes of Google and Facebook to search images.

The app identifies by breaking the image down into two different characteristics - curves/lines and patterns. These features are then used in combination to identify a specific object.

So far, the app is capable of identifying as many as 1,000 objects but Edwardsson says that the company is working on increasing that count to 5,000. However, this is by no means a comprehensive list of distinct things that many of us come across every day.

The good thing is that if Aipoly mis-identifies an object, the user can train the app by typing the correct word or phrase that it didn't get right. This data will then be uploaded on the company servers and and descriptions will be added which will be later released as updated versions of the app every few weeks, Edwardsson says.