Technology can greatly help blind people find their way in such a complex and, at times, even dangerous world. Facebook he's taking a lot of steps forward to get closer those who cannot see to technology, and from today it seems that they will also be able to "tell" the photos.
The new service is launched today to do gives guidance to those who cannot see all the photographs that social media are flooded with. The system works using artificial intelligence: in short, Facebook's servers I am now able to decode and describe the images uploaded to the site, making them available in a form that can be read by screen readers, i.e. the software used by blind people to access online content.
Screen readers have never been, at least so far, can read images. What inspired the Facebook system was Math king, a Facebook engineer who later lost his sight to retinitis pigmentosa. The option launches today on iOS and will soon be available for Android. You must activate the already inserted screen reader, VoiceOver, on the iPhone to allow the photographs to be read. An example of reading: “in the photo there are two people who they are smiling." Sure, not a very detailed description, but still a step forward in the accessibility of social media.
