Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Photography
  3. News

Facebook uses AI to help the blind ‘see’ images

Bruce Brown
By

facebook ai image reader for blind on blue
Facebook uses AI to read image descriptions for blind people
Facebook is ready to help blind people ‘see’ images via artificial intelligence. The new feature, called automatic alternate text, works with existing screen reader apps used by blind and visually impaired people. The AI-generated descriptions identify objects and scenes but there is no facial recognition –although we can imagine it’s on the way. So you if you share an image with A visually impaired friend it won’t tell him or her who is in the picture or what everyone is wearing, but it might read “Image may contain: three people, smiling, birthday cake.”

There are more than 246 million people around the world with severe visual impairments and 39 million who are blind, according to Facebook. More than 2 billion photos are shared daily on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. Automatic alternate text can help social media be more inclusive.

Related Videos

Facebook’s automatic alternate text introduction follows Twitter’s announcement last week of a 420 image character description field also intended for visually impaired people who use screen readers with mobile devices. With the Twitter app the person who composes the Tweet also writes the description. The Facebook feature automatically attempts to describe the image, with the disclaimer “Image may contain.” Of course, a Facebook post creator has plenty of space to describe images already, while Twitter limits regular text to just 140 characters. In each case blind and visually impaired people get less of a raw deal.

Facebook’s automatic alternate text feature is available now for people who use iOS devices in English in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The company plans to support more platforms, languages, and market in the near future.

The accuracy of Facebook’s automatic alternate text feature matters and will likely improve over time.

We imagine that facial recognition is already on the planning board. On the other hand, perhaps it’s better not to attempt to identify people in photos Until the tech is flawless. Imagine if a Facebook screen reader misidentified and called out the wrong names. In some circumstances that could be pretty embarrassing.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
The Windows 11 taskbar is getting an important new update
windows 11 taskbar third party app pinning

Microsoft is working on new experiences for Windows that will allow developers to enable pinning for third-party applications, as well as enable pinning to the Taskbar.

Microsoft recently announced the details of these upcoming functions in a blog post. This is the brand's attempt to universalize its pinning process across all apps used on Windows. In practice, it will be similar to how pinning works on the Edge browser, with the Windows 11 users being notified by the Action Center about a request for pinning to the Taskbar by the app in question.

Read more
iPhone 15: release date and price predictions, leaks, rumors, and more
iPhone 15 render by 4RMD

As great as the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro are, they're both already a few months old at this point, and the rumors about the iPhone 15 are well underway. We still have several months before the iPhone 15 models drop, though, as Apple usually makes iPhone announcements in the fall. In other words, there's still a lot of time for rumors to circulate around the internet.

We're keeping all of the reports and rumors of the iPhone 15 here in a single place for your convenience, but do remember to keep in mind that these are all still just speculation. Nothing is final until Apple confirms it during an official announcement. Still, a lot of the rumors give us an idea of what to expect each year, which is unfortunate if you like surprises. Here's everything we know of the iPhone 15 so far!
iPhone 15: models

Read more
These Android apps are spying on you — and there’s no easy way to stop them
Illustration of a giant eye stalking through a phone

Android’s security woes need no introduction, but another threat that hasn’t received its fair share of awareness relates to spyware and stalkerware apps. These apps can secretly be installed on a victim’s phone to monitor their activity and can be exploited to harass victims of domestic abuse and engage in online stalking. All someone needs is physical access to the victim's phone to install these apps, which is not too difficult in cases of domestic abuse.

Call it an app-fueled version of AirTag stalking, but on steroids, because these spyware apps can steal everything including messages, call logs, emails, photos, and videos. Some can even activate the microphone and the camera, and secretly transfer these recordings to a remote server where the abuser can access it. Since Google Play's policies don't allow stalking apps, these apps are sold via third-party websites and need to be sideloaded.

Read more