Facebook Photos For Blind People

Facebook launches a system that “reads” photos so blind people can “see” them.

18:05 06 April 2016

As the Internet has transformed from a medium based almost entirely on text to becoming dominated by images, Facebook is launching a system that helps visually impaired people “see” photos. 

 

Technologies such as navigation software are currently being used by blind people to turn contents of the screen into speech output or braille. However, these innovations can only read text and not pictures.

 

Facebook will use artificial intelligence to decode and describe images uploaded on the site and provide them in a form that can be read out by a screenreader.

 

The man behind the technology is Facebook engineer Matt King who lost his sight as a result of retinitis pigmentosa.

 

He said: "On Facebook, a lot of what happens is extremely visual. And, as somebody who's blind, you can really feel like you're left out of the conversation, like you're on the outside."

 

"Our artificial intelligence has advanced to the point where it's practical for us to try to get computers to describe pictures in a meaningful way," King says.

 

"This is in its very early stages, but it's helping us move in the direction of that goal of including every single person who wants to participate in the conversation."