At the annual I/O conference, Google has announced one of its upcoming apps called Lookout. The app will help millions of blind and visually impaired people in the world. It will help them to be independent.
What is Lookout app?
The app offers users auditory clues to the objects, text, and people around them. The app is designed to be used with a device worn in a shirt pocket or hanging on a lanyard around a user’s neck, with its camera pointing away from the body. In the Lookout app, you select a mode, and then the app senses where objects are in the world.
Product manager for Google’s Central Accessibility Team, Patrick Clary wrote in a blog:
“Lookout delivers spoken notifications, designed to be used with minimal interaction allowing people to stay engaged with their activity”.
The application has four modes to choose from: Home, Work & Play, Scan or Experimental. They tell the app which elements to focus on. Home, for instance, can tell users where the furniture is if they’re doing chores or cleaning the house and need to move things away from their usual places. The app doesn’t require an internet connection to operate. Moreover, it uses machine learning to learn what people are interested in hearing about.
The company has revealed its plans to launch this app sometime later this year in the US Google Play Store.