Apps and devices for blind and visually impaired people

We aim to create an useful and extensive list of APPS and DEVICES which can facilitate the life of blind and visually impaired people.
Please write your suggestions experience in the comment box.

Last update: 03 Aug 2018

APPS
General / Object Recognition

Be My Eyes (iOS) (Android)
Be My Eyes is a free app that connects blind and low vision people with sighted volunteers and company representatives for visual assistance through a live video call.

NantMobile Money Reader (iOS)
NantMobile Money Reader instantly recognizes currency and speaks the denomination, enabling people experiencing visual impairments or blindness to quickly and easily identify and count bills.

TapTapSee (iOS) (Android)
TapTapSee is a mobile camera application designed specifically for blind and visually impaired users powered by the CloudSight Image Recognition API. The app utilizes the device’s camera and VoiceOver functions to photograph objects and identify them out loud for the user.
In TapTapSee, the user double-taps the device’s screen to photograph any two or three dimensional object at any angle, and have it accurately analyzed and identify within seconds. The device’s VoiceOver then speaks the identification audibly to the user.

Color ID Free (iOS) (Android)
Color Identifier uses the camera on your iPhone or iPod touch to speak the names of colors in real-time. It’s an Augmented Reality app for discovering the names of the colors around you.

iDentifi (iOS)
iDentifi is an app that allows for visually impaired individuals to gain more independence in daily tasks like grocery shopping, self-navigating in indoor environments, and reading. It uses artificial intelligence to enable a visually impaired user to click a photo, and is able to recognize virtually any object, brand, colour, facial expression, handwriting and text, and subsequently deliver an audible description of the image’s contents to the user.

Seeing AI (iOS)
A free app that narrates the world around you. Designed for the low vision community, this research project harnesses the power of AI to describe people, text and objects

ThirdEye (iOS) (Android)
ThirdEye restores autonomy to visually impaired persons’ lives by enabling them to recognize everyday objects. All the user has to do is touch one button and our technology verbally returns back whatever object the user is looking at within seconds (for example a “5 US Dollar Bill” or an “Ibuprofen bottle”).

BeSpecular (iOS) ( Android)
Using the BeSpecular app, the visually impaired person takes a photo of what he or she needs help with and attaches a voice message.
The visually impaired person’s photo & question are sent to our BeSpecular community of sighted. Those sighted who are available can reply to the visually impaired person via the BeSpecular app with a voice or text message.
Within minutes, a visually impaired person receives a reply and then rates out of 5 stars the helpfulness of the sighted.

ViaOpta Hello (iOS) (Android)
The Face Recognition App, Hello is a great example how we can use our knowledge and partner with tech companies to help visually impaired & blind people in their daily life :
Uses Cognitive services and Microsoft latest image analysis technology to identify people, items and scene.
Microsoft Cognitive Services work across devices and platforms such as iOS, Android, and Windows.
The mobile app uses the Smartphones camera to take pictures of objects or people and then uses the back-end cognitive services to provide a description. The desktop app can provide a description of the content of pictures from any available document library, and if the picture contains a known contact, the app will identify them by name.
ViaOpta Hello is available in twelve languages including English, German, French, Spanish, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, Greek, Portuguese, Dutch, Italian and Hungarian.

Magnifier

Smart Magnifier (Android)
This app turns your device into a Magnifying Glass with camera zoom, auto-focus and LED flash.

Navigation

Soundscape (iOS)
Microsoft Soundscape is a research project that explores the use of innovative audio-based technology to enable people, particularly those with blindness or low vision, to build a richer awareness of their surroundings, thus becoming more confident and empowered to get around. Unlike step-by-step navigation apps, Soundscape uses 3D audio cues to enrich ambient awareness and provide a new way to relate to the environment. It allows you to build a mental map and make personal route choices while being more comfortable within unfamiliar spaces.

Intersection Explorer (Android)
Intersection Explorer speaks the layout of the streets and intersections in neighborhoods as you touch and drag your finger around the map. This helps blind and low vision users get an understanding of a neighborhood both before venturing out and while on the go.

BlindSquare (iOS)
BlindSquare is the World’s Most Popular accessible GPS application developed for the blind and visually impaired. It describes the environment, announces points of interest and street intersections as you travel. In conjunction with free, third-party navigation apps it is a powerful solution providing most of the information blind and visually impaired people need to travel independently

Lazarillo GPS for Blind (iOS) (Android)
The intelligent guide application for blind people and visually impaired, who guides you by voice messages in the city

Arianna Navigatio (iOS) (Android)
rianna is a flexible, low-cost navigation system, which can be used in any indoor environment (airports, museums, hospitals, shopping malls) and outdoor (stations, sidewalks, etc.). Arianna uses commercial smartphones to provide high precision localization services against a simple and cheap infrastructure composed of colored paths painted or stuck on the floor (much cheaper than tactile pavements). Through special vibrational signals the user receives feedback for correcting his/her direction. Landmarks can be deployed along the path for coding additional information.

Lazzus: blind gps assistant (iOS) (Android)
Lazzus is an accessible application for mobile devices, designed for blind and visual impaired people, which allows to obtain in real-time the points of interest within the vision field of each user among other functions like:
– Knowing your current location (Street & number).
– Adding favorite places.
– Browse a nearby places list.

Reading

Google Text-to-Speech (Android)
Google Text-to-speech powers applications to read the text on your screen aloud.

Cinema

Greta (iOS) (Android)
Greta is an app that enables people with sight or hearing loss to experience fully accessible cinema. It also includes foreign language subtitles and audio versions for an international audience.
Greta is a special app: it plays the existing audio description (AD) or subtitles for hard-of-hearing individuals and people with hearing lost (SDH) at any time, place, or screening – in indoor and outdoor cinemas, at home, at school etc. – simply, using one’s own smart device. Greta whispers audio descriptions or plays subtitles.

DEVICES

Sunu
Using radar and augmented reality, Sunu Band enables people who are low vision and blind to travel with confidence. Advanced haptic feedback guides your way around any obstacle, and navigation sensors connect you to the world that’s around you.

FingerReader 
The technology for reading written text continues to improve and the FingerReader is a good example of a new way of interacting. This MIT Media Labs project is a wearable device, a very chunky ring that sits on the finger and is capable of detecting and interpreting 12-point printed text as the user scans his or her finger across it. It reads aloud in real-time. Small vibrations alert the wearer to any deviation off the line.

Braille ebook reader
This idea first surfaced a few years back as a concept on Yanko Design. Why not create a tactile digital reader device for Braille readers, like a Kindle for the blind? Braille literacy has been in steady decline since the 1960s for various reasons. There’s still a debate raging about the importance of Braille and the potential problems with talking computers after research revealed a link between Braille literacy and employment.

OrCam
OrCam MyEye is an intuitive wearable device with a smart camera that clips onto a regular spectacle frame. It is designed to assist anyone that struggles to read, recognise faces or objects – particularly people who are blind or vision impaired.

eSight 
eSight is worn like a normal pair of glasses. It houses a high-speed, high-definition camera that captures everything you are looking at, and then displays it on two near-to-eye displays.
Advanced, medically-validated algorithms optimize and enhance the footage so that your eyes can truly see it, and in real-time.
eSight’s ability to tilt up and down allows you to always have access to your native peripheral vision. This enables true mobility

NuEyes
NuEyes Pro removable visual prosthetic featuring ODG smart glasses is the first ever lightweight, wireless, head worn device that is voice activated for the visually impaired. Whether you have macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, retinitis pigmentosa, or other visual conditions NuEyes can help!
NuEyes Pro is a very simple product to use and can be either operated with our wireless controller included with the product or using simple voice commands.

Aira
Using augmented reality, Aira connects people who are blind or low vision to a trained professional agent who is dedicated to further enhancing their everyday experience – completely hands-free assistance at the touch of a button.

iBionics
The iBIONICS Diamond Eye™ works like a Retina A diamond implant, surgically placed at the back of the eye, converts incoming laser light (sent from custom smart video glasses) to electric pulses.