AI-based Lookout app for visually impaired now available in Ukrainian

Lookout, a Google-made app designed to make everyday tasks easier for visually impaired people, is now available in 11 new languages, including Ukrainian.

The app is AI-powered, which helps the users explore the world more, says the Google Ukraine press service.

What is the problem?

Ukrainians have their day made up of many different tasks, from sorting mail to reading recipes to walking around town. Some of these can be difficult or time-consuming for the nearly 338 million moderately or severely visually impaired people in the world.

In 2018, Google launched Lookout, an Android app powered by artificial intelligence to help such people complete daily tasks more easily.

However, the app did not have an option to choose Ukrainian.

What is the solution?

Now, Google added Ukrainian to the list of possible languages to choose from while using the app.

How does it work?

To use the Lookout app, users need to hang their smartphone around their neck or put it in their pocket. The camera must have access to the requested objects to be detected. Lookout can be operated using gestures on the fingerprint scanner.

When using Lookout in Ukrainian, users can choose from three available modes: text, document, and research.

• Text mode is best for reading a small amount of text aloud, such as when sorting business cards or letters. 

• Document mode can help capture and speak out entire pages of text in a text format or Google Docs.
• Explore mode uses computer vision to identify objects around the user, which can be especially useful if he's in an unfamiliar place and wants to know what exactly is around, such as furniture or a pet.

We continue to work with the blind and low vision communities to understand how to make Lookout even more useful. Since launch, we've been able to use this feedback to create additional modes to help with a variety of tasks and improve the app's design, the blog post says.

Users can also access additional modes by using the app in some other languages, including English.

The Ukrainian startup Respeecher initiated a project to collect the voices of Crimean Tatar speakers to teach artificial intelligence to speak the Crimean Tatar language.