By Linda Bartram
I discovered a relatively new feature on my iPhone recently. I have used “Be My Eyes” for years, calling occasionally to determine what kind of soup I had in my hand or what colour something was. I had heard about their new feature--"Be My AI" and briefly checked it out months ago but then promptly forgot about it until I listened to a recent CCB presentation on AI and blindness.
I have been running around--okay walking around--excitedly trying it out since, and it's pretty good!! You can’t expect perfect--after all, it's free!! I’ve been “looking” at things in my home and garden, and it's just about like having someone right there describing everything to me--the pictures on my walls, the view from my front window, the print on my bedspread, the colour of something I unearthed from a drawer, the label on a round can, the names of the plants in my garden, the general state of the grass, the clouds in the sky...well you get the picture, and I certainly did. And if I wanted more details, then I could dictate a question and Be My AI would look it up. It didn’t always know the name of a plant if there weren’t any flowers--I guess some leaves are not that distinguishable, but if there were flowers, it gave me the correct name and reminded me of the colour. It was 100% accurate when identifying the vegetables I’m growing. I pointed the camera at my face and it described an older smiling woman with short light brown hair. I asked it how old the woman was and it said it could not determine this and I should ask her. Right answer!
This might be the app that actually convinces me to remember not to leave home without it. Can’t wait to check out my surroundings on my next trip to the mall. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I recommend you do so. It's even intuitive enough for a techie dinosaur like me to figure out how to use it. For more information on Be My AI, visit this page.
Happy AIing!
FEATURED IMAGE ALT TEXT: Graphic showing picture of a cellphone with text that reads "Be My AI, Rolling out now".