A question so often asked by people with sight problems is 'What's that?' 
followed closely by 'Where is it?'

Until recently the only way to find out was to find someone who could describe
the item or environment to the person but now there are several apps  and 
devices available that will help with this task.

With the increasingly fast development of AI services this is an area of technology
and accessibility that is moving very fast.

In this document I'll mention just the smart phone and tablet apps and not
any specific hardware solutions.

The apps have generally fallen into two types, the first being where 
the user takes a picture which is then sent to a third party who types a 
description for them - useful but does not allow for privacy.  The second kind 
uses computer based facilities to do the same task, known as artificial 
inteligence these systems are getting better by the day and produce very fast 
answers.

In the following section I will try and list as many of these apps as possible
that I have actually tried and make brief comments.

When identifying food products it makes the job that much quicker if you can
present the right side of the product to your phones camera, for example with
many tinned products try to find the join in the can label and put that 
furthest from the camera - any other tips welcome!

A note of caution here too, these apps do seem to eat power so do try these at 
home first to avoid getting caught out with a flat battery.

These apps are also a good reason to keep your phone up to date, consider the
quality of the camera on your phone.

All these apps can be found in the google play store unless otherwise stated.
Some may be available for Apple devices as well.
Descriptions are brief at the moment - further notes will be added as I go.

I'm currently testing on Samsung galaxy S21 and S23 Ultra running Android 15.

Part of the Bixby assistant within Android on Samsung devices - it's off
the starting blocks but not tested much by me yet.

Version 3.?

No recent testing but well worth looking at. Ongoing research February 
2024.

This AI assistant can now use your devices camera to look at your environment.
Switching on the video stream function give a much more interactive feel,
maybe a suggestion of what Googles smart glasses will offer.

Sort of things I'vwe tried include:-
* Where are the steps? panning the camera sometimes picks them out.
* what can you see? descibes your environment etc.

Identifies various items and points the user to further imformation about an
item such as web sites.

Brilliant tool from Google which can be used to describe your environment, 
read text and identify food products via their packaging, a real must for all
blind Android smart device users.

Recent releases of Lookout and Talkback have made vast improvments to speed 
and accuracy.

Panning the camera round my office picked out a packet of batteries on my desk which
I had forgotten were there, the fire blanket on the wall, various items on
the shelves from books to a resin owl all within a few seconds.

A quick scan of my lounge even read the label on a candle that was on a coffee 
table.  A similar scan of the hall spotted the stairs, doors etc.

Text recognition is pretty good although maybe not as good as a specific OCR
app, sanning text with lookout gives you enough detail that you can decide if
it's junk or something worth reading properly, even has a stab at hand writing.

Overal very impressive and a must for all blind Android users I'd say.

Has facilities to describe images and short videos - take a quick snap or video 
clip from within the app to get it described.

I do find the descriptions a bit flowery but I suspect this can be altered.

Registered users can take advantage of using Whatsapp to get really fast answers.

Version 1.4.1 (released 22/03/2025)

Available on Android since December 2023 a very similar product to Googles
Lookout - well worth having both apps available, where one falls down the other will win.

Very fast system, so much research and practice required to get the best from
the app as it has so many facilities.

I'd suggest trying the 'Describe' function as a good start point, within a few seconds
of taking a picture it gives a detailed description of the environment
infront of the camera - for example items on tables and shelves, location 
of features such as windows and doors.

Compare Seeing AI's describe with the similar function in Lookout and you
can see a need for both, Seeing AI is more detailed but Lookout gives
a very quick interactive view as the camera moves.

Was known as Viaopta hello .. Can't seem to get this to work.

Provides object identification and text scanning facilities.

I suspect designed mainly for apple devices but this is another very good 
product well worth trying.

Not personally tested these but have heard good reports.

Think this app has now been replaced with Seeing AI, can anyone confirm please.

Produced by Microsoft this app has a range of facilities including
reading text, describe images, recognise colours, report on light levels
and describe objects in the environment around you.  Currently running
this app on my Android phone too.