The Silicon Review ^Asia

Tech giant Microsoft recently made an all new addition to app list with the release of an iPhone app, including in India that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to assist the blind and visually impaired see the world around them like never before. The all new move, comes with the free Seeing AI app, can read out short snippets of text, describe people, identify products and currency denominations, and take a attempt at making out the objects in a persons surroundings. Using a smartphone camera or a pair of camera-equipped smart glasses, the app can recognize things in your environment – people, objects, and even emotions – to provide important context for what is going on around you.

A Microsoft research project, this brings together the power of the cloud and AI to bring anintelligent app, designed to help you navigate your day, Microsoft said in a statement. The project was verified in March last year by Microsoft software engineer Saqib Shaikh. The app relies on the iPhone camera, backed by Microsofts machine-learning and image-recognition algorithms, the Seattle Times reported.

However, the company still did not say whether a version would be released for Android phones. Seeing AI takes its name from the Microsoft research project that developed the tool. The app is obtainable in the US, Canada, India, New Zealand and Hong Kong. Seeing AI unites a small group of apps intended to help visually damage people. Most others are meant at a single task, like recognizing a colour or reading text audibly.

While Microsoft is not the only firm in dealing with this problem, as Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon are working on same projects, CNET reported.