[Njtechdiv] iDentifi app
Mario Brusco
mrb620 at hotmail.com
Wed Nov 30 19:12:06 UTC 2016
the correct youtube is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpAZHyZIzyg
-------- Original Message --------
From: Mario [mailto:mrb620 at hotmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, Nov 30, 2016 9:35 AM EST
To: New Jersey Technology Division List <njtechdiv at nfbnet.org>
Subject: iDentifi app
A Toronto teen is hoping to change the lives of visually impaired
people around the world with a new app that can identify virtually
any object with the quick tap of an iPhone or iPad.
Anmol Tukrel, a 17-year-old grade 12 student at Holy Trinity School in
Richmond Hill, has always been fascinated with technology,
particularly artificial intelligence. By the time he was in grade 7, he
was already teaching himself how to code.
Growing up, Tukrel often travelled to Pune, India to visit his aunt who
worked at the K. K. Eye Institute, a hospital dedicated to
providing eye care for people who can't afford it. That experience,
combined with an internship at a startup that uses computer
vision to make products for advertising firms, led him to the perfect
idea for a Canada-Wide Science Fair project.
"I thought I could use computer vision for a more humanitarian use,
and help visually impaired people," he said.
Tukrel's iPhone app, iDentifi, allows users to take a photo of
virtually any object, and then describes that item in great detail back
to the user.
People can also take photos of text and have it read back to them, in
one of 27 languages. Tukrel hopes it makes every day tasks
like picking out the can of pop you want easier for people who are
visually impaired.
Jason Fayre, the head of accessibility and assistive technology at the
Canadian National Institute for the Blind, tested out the app
and, although there are similar apps on the market, gave it a rave review.
"I'm extremely impressed, especially that it was written by a grade 12
person," he said. As a blind person himself, Fayre said
iDentifi would make his life in easier when trying to identify things in
the kitchen.
"If I don't know what a particular can of something is, being able to
take a picture and have that information read back to me in
great detail is very useful," he said.
It took Tukrel more than a year to develop the app, a process that
involved months of painstaking research and enough code to fill
a two-inch binder. He had initially planned on making his own
convolutional neural network computer speak for the data structure
used to make the program that recognizes objects. Eventually, he opted
to integrate existing programs.
Tukrel casually speaks about computer vision, convolutional neural
networks, and application program interfaces as though he
were a university graduate of computer science - not an
about-to-graduate high schooler.
"I've always liked technology, but as much as I like playing video
games and using different apps, I wanted to be able to make
them myself," Tukrel said.
For Tukrel, the work doesn't stop now that the science fair is over.
He has already met with various organizations to get feedback on the
app, and plans on making tweaks to improve the user
experience. So far, the app has been downloaded by several thousand
people and is being used in 60
countries. And, it's free, something Tukrel doesn't plan on changing.
"I want people who are visually impaired to use it without thinking of
the financial consequences of doing so," he said. "We have
such great technology and I think it's important that everyone has
access to it."
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/11/28/toronto-teen-uses-app-to-give-visually-impaired-a-new-look-at-the-world.html
and here's a short youtube on how it works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpAZHyZIzyg
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