Microsoft App Could Be Life-Changing For Vision Impaired Aussies

Microsoft has released a revolutionary artificial intelligence app that is set to offer a life-changing impact for the 350,000 Australians who are vision impaired.

Launched earlier this month, the Seeing AI app is compatible with smartphones and uses facial recognition technology to assist with describing the surrounding environment, the Huffington Post reports.

Among the features of the app, Seeing AI turns the “visual world into an audible experience”, using technology to convert short snippets of text into sound alongside recognising barcodes.

While catching up with friends, the app will be able to recognise familiar faces and even describe their emotions.

Microsoft’s Dave Heiner told the HuffPost Australia the idea was conceived by tech developers as an intersection between smartphone and AI tech.

"The Seeing AI means you can hold your phone up to a person and it can tell me what that person looks like, what their age is, the colour of their hair, whether they're wearing glasses, whether they look happy or sad," he said.

"It does a whole set of AI capabilities around facial recognition. You can point it at a product and it will read the bar code and tell you what the product is, you can point it at a sign in a hallway or airport and it will read the text back instantly."

"It's just an unbelievably magical application for the visually impaired community and for anyone that wants to see the benefits of AI."

You can check out a video about Seeing AI app below: