App Review – Blind Resources

Speaking Email App Review

Speaking Email is an app that uses your phones voice assistant to read you emails aloud to you hands free,and was developed by BEWEB LTD for the IOS app store, and Google Play store. The app does rely on a subscription service ($4.99 for a month, $9.99 for three months, or $29.99 for the year) but there is a free mode that has less features.

Probably the best thing about speaking email is the user interface. The simple design makes it super easy for the visually impaired to use the app. All the buttons are decently sized so those with residual vision should have no problem navigating. The app also has voice commands for those who are blind or just want to listen to emails while driving and can’t use their hands.

The app has a ton of customizable preferences so that you only see what you want to see in your emails. For example you can disable emails from the promotional and social categories. You can also choose which parts of the email get read such as subject, signatures, and attachments. You can even change the voice of the AI assistant that reads your emails.

My only real problem with Speaking Email is that the app can have a hard time telling between what’s spam/promotional and what’s important. For instance I got an email from google when I connected my G-mail to the app, which the app thought was promotional material. Luckily if you swipe back or previous email it will go back and read it to you.

Pros:

Simple UI
Easy for the blind/visually impaired to use
Customizable preferences
Responsive voice commands

Cons:

Difficulties with spam/promotional material

Conclusion: Speaking Email is an incredible app that is a must have for those who are blind or have a visual impairment that prevents them from reading emails themselves.

Final Score: 9/10

Thanks for reading, be sure to keep an eye out for more content and reviews soon, and if you think there’s a product or app we should review please leave a comment.

Vhista App Review

Note: This app was reviewed in tandem with two other scanner apps TapTapSee, and Seeing AI.

Vhista is a scanner app for the blind and visually impaired developed by Juan David Cruz Serrano for the IOS app store , and Google Play store.

The first major issue I had was that a lot of times the camera doesn’t detect that there’s an object in front of it. This issue seems to be caused primarily by tabbing out of the app and then tabbing back in without restarting the app. While restarting the app seemed to help a little bit the detection was still pretty hit or miss.

Vhista’s biggest flaw is easily the detailed image scan which you activate by tapping the screen. Instead of actually telling you what the object is the app just spouts a bunch of guesses and hopes something lands. For example I scanned my dog (the Bulldog from previous reviews) and the app just gave me a list of dog breeds. While the first breed it guessed was the correct one, this method of object detection is more likely to cause confusion for those who are blind.

The active camera mode doesn’t fare much better. Almost every object the app managed to detect was incorrect. For example the app thought a trash can was a toilet, and that a light switch was a paper towel. While the app got both right upon scanning again, it’s probably enough for most to find a different app.

Pros:

Voice over support
Subscription is only 50 cents a month

Cons:

Does not show text for detailed scans
Most objects were incorrectly narrated
Does not do well with large print enabled
Requires a subscription

Conclusion: Vhista is a below average scanner app. Almost every object I scanned was incorrect and worse yet is the fact that the app didn’t detect a lot of the objects I tried to scan. If you’re looking for a proper scanner app you’re better off looking elsewhere.

4/10

Microsoft’s Seeing AI App Review

Note: this app was reviewed in tandem with two other scanner apps TapTapSee, and Vhista.

Seeing AI is a scanner app for the visually impaired developed by Microsoft for the IOS app store. The app uses an AI to narrate the world to mixed results. The app includes nine scanner modes Short Text, Handwriting, Document, Product (bar-code), Person, Currency, Scene, Color, and Light scan.

First up is short text and handwriting. While it can recognize text semi-accurately it reads it in a random order making it an unusable mess. I tried scanning the cover of my copy of A Game Of Thrones because the text is in bold print which I thought would make it easier on the app. It ended up reading it as Martin Thrones R. R.

The handwriting mode works a little differently than short text mode. Instead of the text to speech continuously spewing word vomit, the app scans it into text which you can either read yourself if you have residual vision or have the text to speech read it to you if you’re full blind. I scanned handwriting three times and two out o the three times it was correct.

The document scan was a little more accurate than short text but was still pretty hit or miss. I scanned around three documents and only one was scanned with no typos. The other two times the words were either wrong or missing entirely. So if you need to have a document read to you I would look elsewhere.

The feature I found most useful was easily the product scanner. Each time I scanned a bar code it was able to correctly determine the product name. The only issue I could find with it is that people who are fully blind may have trouble scanning a bar code. The app is supposed to beep when a bar code is close but every time I scanned a product it failed to do so.

The person scan feature worked well enough. I scanned myself multiple times and each time the app got most of my facial details and expression right. My only issue with this feature is that it tries to predict age but ended up getting my age wrong (by about a decade) every time I scanned myself (about six times).

The currency scan feature was surprisingly accurate, every time I scanned a bill it was able to accurately tell what the amount was. The only complaint I had was that it does not scan coins.

The biggest problem I had with Seeing AI was the general scan function or scene scan as it’s called in app . Almost every object I scanned was incorrect. So if you’re downloading Seeing AI for the general scan function don’t, there are much better apps out there such as TapTapSee.

Scene Scanner Accuracy Results:

Photo: Kingdom Hearts 3 PS4 Case

Object Subtitle: It seems to be screenshot, poster, cartoon, book, pc game, action-adventure game, action film, digital compositing, clothing, strategy video game

Accuracy: Wrong

Photo: Red Dead Redemption 2 PS4 Case

Object Subtitle: Probably a close up of a book

Accuracy: Wrong

Photo: Blade Runner 2049 Blu-ray Case

Object Subtitle: It seems to be poster, screenshot, vehicle, car, land vehicle, person, man, human face

Accuracy: Wrong

Photo: A Game Of Thrones By George R. R. Martin

Object Subtitle: Probably a close up of a sign

Accuracy: Wrong

Photo: Tazo Iced Green Tea Bottle

Object Subtitle: Probably an empty bottle sitting on a table

Accuracy: Fairly Correct

Photo: Sun-Maid Organic Raisin Pack

Object Subtitle: It seems to be food, snack, dessert, baked goods, confectionery

Accuracy: Wrong

Photo: Red and White Cane for the Blind

Object Subtitle: it seems to be bicycle, bicycle wheel, indoor, toothbrush, stationary, writing implement, sports equipment, plastic, pen

Accuracy: Wrong

Photo: White, Grey, and Blue Converse Sneakers

Object Subtitle: Probably a group of shoes

Accuracy: Fairly Correct

Photo: Mead Five Star Notebook

Object Subtitle: Probably a close up of a computer

Accuracy: Wrong

Photo: White and Brown English Bulldog

Object Subtitle: a brown and white dog looking at the camera

Accuracy: Mostly Correct

Pros:

Free
Currency scanner
Product scanner
Quick processing time

Cons:

3/10 accuracy for general image scanning
Money reader can’t scan coins
Face scanner can’t tell age
Inaccurate
Clunky UI (User Interface)

Conclusion: Overall Seeing AI was a mixed bag for me. For each good thing it felt like there were two caveats that came with it. However I still feel the app is worth a download for the product and currency features.

6/10

Thanks for reading, please keep an eye out for our review of Vhista as well as our round up of which of the three scanner apps is the best. If you have any suggestions of a review or topic you’d like to see us cover please feel free to leave a comment.

TapTapSee App Review

Note: this app was reviewed in tandem with two other object recognition apps (Seeing AI, Vhista).

TapTapSee is an Object Recognition app on the IOS app store, and Google Play store. The app is designed to help the blind and visually impaired by scanning objects through their phones camera.

TapTapSee’s user interface is by far the most user friendly out of the three object recognition apps I’ve been testing. Unlike the other object recognition apps there’s no category slider at the bottom to switch between what type of object you want to scan. All you do is tap the screen and it scans the image no matter what type of object it is , there’s no hassle of changing to a different category for certain objects.

The biggest draw back to TapTapSee is how long it takes to process an image once its been scanned. Once an image has been scanned it can take anywhere between 15 seconds and a minute to process the image.

Where it lacks in speed it makes up for in accuracy. almost every object I scanned was not only correct, but detailed. For example I scanned my dog and the app was able to tell not only the coloring but the breed (brown and white English Bulldog).

The app is also able to identify the titles of movies and video games based off of scanning the box, though it’s worth mentioning that it some times can struggle with more complicated box art. For example I scanned my copy of Kingdom Hearts 3 for PS4 and it identified as King Of Hears.

Photo: Kingdom Hearts 3 PS4 Case

Object Subtitle: King Of Hears PS4 Case

Accuracy: Wrong

Photo: Red Dead Redemption 2 PS4 Case

Object Subtitle: Sony PS4 Red Dead Redemption 2 Case

Accuracy: Mostly Correct

Photo: Get Out Blu-ray Case

Object Subtitle: Get Out Blu-ray Case

Accuracy: Correct

Photo: A Game Of Thrones By George R. R. Martin

Object Subtitle: A Game Of Thrones By George R. R. Martin

Accuracy: Correct

Photo: Tazo Iced Green Tea Bottle

Object Subtitle: Tazo Iced Green Tea Bottle

Accuracy: Correct

Photo: Sun-Maid Organic Raisin Pack

Object Subtitle: Sun-Maid Organic Raisin Pack

Accuracy: Correct

Photo: Red and White Cane for the Blind

Object Subtitle: White and Red Stick

Accuracy: Fairly Correct

Photo: White, Grey, and Blue Converse Sneakers

Object Subtitle: Grey Low Top Sneakers

Accuracy: Fairly Correct

Photo: Mead Five Star Notebook

Object Subtitle: Mead Fire Star Notebook

Accuracy: Fairly Correct

Photo: Adult White and Brown English Bulldog

Object Subtitle: Adult White and Tan English Bulldog (Original scan said white and brown but forgot to take photo, so had to try to replicate and this was the first scan. Sorry.)

Accuracy: Mostly Correct

Pros:

Recognizes objects with surprising accuracy.
Simple UI (User Interface)
Doesn’t require a subscription
Free
9/10 Accuracy

Cons:

takes a minute to process
Needs voice over turned on to narrate

TapTapSee is easily the best object recognition app I’ve tested. While not the fastest it is by far the most accurate, with a 9/10 success ratio you’d be hard pressed to find a better recognition app.

Final Score:8/10

Thanks for reading, if you liked this post make sure to keep an eye out for our reviews of Vhista, and Seeing AI early next week.