Category: accessible Devices
Feel free to share this info with visually impaired individuals and if you or anyone you know has used this product, I would like to hear from you. Just wish it wasn't so expensive! “OrCam harnesses the power of Artificial Vision to compensate for lost visual abilities. OrCam is a sensor that sees what is in front of you, understands what information you seek and provides it to you through a bone-conduction earpiece.
Characteristics and Features
OrCam reads, recognizes faces, identifies objects, products and places, locates bus numbers and monitors traffic lights. It does all that with the most intuitive user interface you can imagine.
Easy to Use All you have to do is point.
OrCam understands what you want on its own, whether it's to read, find an item, catch a bus or cross the road.
Faces and places are recognized continuously. OrCam will tell you when it sees a face or a place it recognizes, without you having to do anything.
To teach the device something new is just as simple: for an item shake it, for a place or face wave your hand. When OrCam sees these gestures it will instruct you in real time on how to store the item.
Read
OrCam can read any printed text, in real time.
You can read newspapers and books, signs, labels on any product including medication and even text on a computer, phone or television screen.
It understands what you want on its own! If you point to a specific article or paragraph, OrCam will start reading from the beginning of that part, or point to the top of the text and OrCam will read it from the beginning.
Recognize objects
OrCam comes pre-installed with hundreds of objects it can recognize, and you can personalize it by teaching it to recognize the objects around you.
It can recognize products and money notes to make shopping quicker and easier, but also personal items, like your own pen or credit card. So you can always easily know what's in front of you.
Recognize People
OrCam can be taught to recognize the faces of your family and friends.
So you can easily recognize who is in a room when you come in, or who is coming towards you.
Mobility
OrCam will help you get wherever you want.
It can tell you when the light changes from red to green and which bus line is coming. You can use its reading abilities to read signs, and its ability to memorize places you've already been to, in order to orient yourself.
So what can you do with OrCam?
Read any printed text
Get around on foot or public transportation
Know who is near you
Shop, recognize objects, find items etc…
And equally as important – do all that easily with just the point of a finger!”
Hear a description at this site, and hit enter on the play button :
http://www.orcam.com/
I hope you enjoyed hearing about this amazing new technology. The world is getting very interesting for us with limited vision!
interesting but not afferdable i am sure!
If anyone's curious, its 2500 dollars. Not as expensive as some visually impaired technology, but not something I carry around in my wallet either. Its also sold out until the end of this year.
The commercial seems very... well... commercially. I'd be skeptical of it working so well in real life.
I mean, I love the idea, and I'd love to have one, but I don't think I'd be gambling on it working right every time. For example, it says you can point to the start of a paragraph. However, what it doesn't tell you is just how you're supposed to know where that paragraph starts. we can't see, so we can't see the start of a paragraph.
I'd love to know if it actually works.
I agree with Cody; I just wonder how well it does work and yes, i also love the idea; would love to try it out for a day first; that's only fair methinks.
Can I also request that people link to the source of the articals? I would like to have more of a look at this but couldn't find it on google; perhaps I was spelling ot wrong; will try again.
I believe I saw something about a return policy on the website, but don't quote me. For the spelling its OrCam. Capitol O and capitol C.
This sounds like an interesting new product. the hardware itself looks reasonably non tacky, compared to google glass. though, this isn't really an app.
what would make this more interesting though, would be combining this with a siri like interface for communicating more advanced questions to the unit, and gps like software to help you navigate.
considering it has a camera, it would be interesting to see it recognize things in the environment live, like places you are walking past, doors to a place, etc. While a cane or dog works well, i'm sure some people would feel more comfortable with a device telling them things like "Steps ahead" or, as you walk down this sidewalk, make note of the group of tables on your right."
Interesting idea.
I would use that in conjunction with the dog or cane. I mean, the dog would lead me around them, but it would be cool to be able to know that its a table. Or maybe I could look across the street and see that there's a store over there I didn't know about.
I agree; I'd not give up a cane or dog and use such a device exclusively. Extra info is always a good thing, but I still trust what's tried and true. I love my GPS app, for instance, but I still keep track of landmarks and such when traveling, just in case. Cool concept, but I can see it being distracting, having it talking at you. You know, you're trying to chat with someone you've just passed on the sidewalk and it's telling you your friend so-and-so is across the street. I even find my phone chirping at me occasionally kind of annoying. I wish it intuitively knew when to shut up. lol
Very sensible. I think the more responsible of these apps actually warn you against using them to replace your primary mobility aid such as a dog or cane.
Sorry, couldn't give the link because it appeared in my email box from a newsletter, lol.
I'd never advise something like this replace a dog or cain.
the site is; www.orcam.com
Completely agree with James. It would be something good to use in conjunction with the dog or cane, as a GPS is a good tool in a new area you haven't been to before. But just as the GPS doesn't tell you everything, you can't rely on it solely to catch everything that you will come across. At least not yet.
Hi
This sounds very interesting
But, there's also the problem of having to teach stuff to it. It said you have to wave your hand, does that mean in front of the object and it'll like know its a face and then you have to put in the name. What if its an object like a pen. I've seen apps like this and I'm sure it doesn't work as well as it says it does because of camera stuff. But, i would hope it'd work pretty good for the amount of money it is.
This sounds really cool. I would use it in conjunction with my cane. I agree that I would want to have a free trial period or something to see how good it works before purchasing it.