Envision, a developer of wearable assistive technology for the blind and visually impaired, has introduced powerful new capabilities to its smart glasses.
Envision glasses incorporate a “breakthrough” feature called Ask Envision. It leverages GPT-4 by OpenAI to provide the wearer with virtual assistance, improve access to information and navigate the surrounding environment.
GPT-4 is a multimodal AI that accepts text and image input and emits text output. This advanced language model understands and answers natural language questions. It can be used for a wide range of applications, including solving problems with great precision. Creating, editing, and iterating with users on creative and technical writing tasks. Generate image captions, classification, and analysis. Create long-form content. document search; and so on.
Ask Envision makes text-based content easily accessible to the blind and visually impaired, eliminating the need for human assistance. This feature provides real-time information, making it easier to read, ask questions, and gather information. It further enhances autonomy and provides users with an enjoyable experience without relying on others.
The Ask Envision feature, which currently uses GPT-4, allows Envision Glasses users to ask questions about text or documents they’ve just scanned. Users can then ask questions about the content.
For example, after scanning a menu, the wearer can ask Envision, “What vegetarian options are available?” Envision tells the wearer that it answers the question. After processing the question, the glasses can say, for example, “On the menu he has three vegetarian options: mushroom risotto, spinach pie, and fried tofu salad.”
Ask Envision is built into the Envision Glasses text “Reader” and can be accessed after using the “Scan Text” function. Once the text has been processed and opened in the “Reader”, you will need to press and hold the hinge button on the Envision Glasses until you hear a chime. Then ask a question and wait for the virtual assistant to answer.
Another example of how Ask Envision is used is paying your electricity bill. The wearer can ask, “When is the due date?” or “How much do I have to pay?” to get the information they need.
Watch the video below to see the Ask Envision feature in action.
