Amazon Echo Show's New Show and Tell Feature to Help Visually Challenged

A new "Show and Tell" capability lets users get replies to the question "What am I holding?"

By Agence France-Presse | Updated: 24 September 2019 14:19 IST

Amazon Echo Show's New Show and Tell Feature to Help Visually Challenged

Amazon on Monday added a feature enabling its Echo Show smart screens to recognize household pantry items as part of an effort intended to help the visually challenged.

A new "Show and Tell" capability available for Alexa digital assistant on Echo Show devices in the US lets users get audible replies to the question "What am I holding?"

Echo Show screens built with camera capabilities use computer vision and machine learning technology to recognise what people have in hand, according to the Seattle-based technology titan.

"It's a tremendous help and a huge time saver because the Echo Show just sits on my counter, and I don't have to go and find another tool or person to help me identify something," mechanical engineer Stacie Grijalva said in a blog post.

"I can do it on my own by just asking Alexa."

Grijalva, who lost her sight as an adult, is technology manager at a centre for the visually challenged in the California coast city of Santa Cruz that worked with the Amazon team.

"The whole idea for Show and Tell came about from feedback from blind and low vision customers," said Sarah Caplener, head of Amazon's Alexa for Everyone team.

"Whether a customer is sorting through a bag of groceries, or trying to determine what item was left out on the counter, we want to make those moments simpler by helping identify these items and giving customers the information they need in that moment."

Major technology firms including Apple, Google, and Microsoft invest in making innovations more accessible or helpful to people with disabilities, which is seen as being good for business as well as socially beneficial.

Being able to interact with smart speakers or other devices by voice can be a boon for the visually impaired, while features such as automatic captioning of online videos can aid those who can't hear.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.