Is called Aipoly and it is an app that allows blind or visually impaired people to "see" what is around them. Aipoly is an artificial intelligence app that allows you to explore the world in a different way, through a technology that communicates what you are framing with a guiding voice, obviously thanks to the use of the smartphone camera. The app currently allows you to identify around 1.000 different objects and 900 colors in real time.
Aipoly was presented for the first time in Italy at the Irccs GB Bietti Foundation for Study and Research in Ophthalmology Onlus; was created by the very young Albert Rizzoli (22 years old), by Marita Cheng (26 years old) and Simon Edwardsson (27 years old), at Singularity University, at NASA's research park in California.
It works like this: the blind or visually impaired takes the cell phone in hand and with the camera focuses on what is in front of him. The mobile will say in speakerphone all he recognized. Much better than a guide dog! Aipoly was born thanks to a 30 thousand dollar scholarship given by Google to attend Singularity University.
The app has been learning for a few months the Italian and 5 other languages, and after just 4 weeks of release it had already been used by around 40.000 people; soon we will reach the milestone of 5000 recognized objects. «Despite therapeutic progress – explains Mario Stirpe, president of Ircss – unfortunately the risk of blindness has not been overcome, which affects a number of people that varies depending on the country. The innovation described by the group of researchers opens a new path for concrete help."