SuperSense – enjoying the independence
On the occasion of 73rd Independence Day of our
country I decided to share an interesting app which helps people with vision
impairment in their independent living. I recently came across this Android app
named ‘SuperSense’ developed by MIT lab and thought to write a blog post on it.
Basically this app is designed using artificial intelligence(AI) and computer
vision technology which helps its user to understand the surroundings
effectively. It also supports object and text recognition on the go. Icing on
the cake is that all the mentioned features work without internet connectivity.
I tried this on my Moto G5 Plus and results are just amazing
User interface
‘SuperSense’ has very clean and easy interface. Once you launch the app you
have a ‘Menu’ button
which pops up the setting options once activated. These settings include
features like ‘Enable TalkBack’, ‘Enable
Beeping’, ‘Enable
Vibration’, ‘Invite
Friends’, ‘Give
Feedback’ and ‘Help’. Utility of
these settings is very straight forward as per their names. Beeping is useful
in context of ‘Find Object’. ‘TalkBack’ option will provide audio prompts even when ‘TalkBack’ screen
reader is turned off. I think this is useful for people with low vision who don’t use screen reader always. Next to this ‘Menu’ button we
have three important options as ‘Read’, ‘Explore’ and ‘Find’. Each option has their little description
written next to the name. At one time user can select one of the options and
based on this selection button at the end will change its label accordingly.
For e.g. ‘Start Reading’ when ‘Read’ is selected. During the recognition this
button changes its label to ‘Pause’ for better usability.
Recognition results
I tried reading the text on my computer screen using the ‘Read Text’ option and
it turned out to be very accurate. Guys, please note this recognition happens
on the go so changing your focus and going away from the text may affect the
result. ‘SuperSense’ even guides you to align the camera for better focus with
directions however this needs some improvement.
‘Explore’ option is also very useful while visiting any new place. I
tried this in my office building and got decent results taking into account my
surroundings including doors, steps and people around. One of the interesting
options in the ‘SuperSense’ is ‘Find’ which helps you to locate the specific
object from the category. Presently list of categories are enough for daily
usage and this list may increase with
future updates. You just need to rotate your phone after selecting the desired
object from the list, app gives you the beep sound if object is located. Using
this option I tried locating my TV remote, water bottle, microwave and other
small utensils in the kitchen and it worked just fantastic!
Experience the AI future
As we all know there are plenty of mobile apps available for
object recognition but ‘SuperSense’ stands strong in this competition due to
its easy interface, amazing accuracy and most importantly offline feature.
Reading business cards, paper prints and signages is a cakewalk in ‘SuperSense’. Out of the
other features ‘Find’ feature
appealed me the most as it helps me locating my stuff quickly and saves lot of
time. I think this app will be very useful for my friends with vision
impairment living alone. Presently app is available only on Android platform
but developers have plan of rolling it out on iOS as well. As of now ‘SuperSense’ is free for
users but they are planning for subscription based usage in coming days. So try
this astonishing technology on your Android phone by visiting the URL given at
the end of the post and enjoy the independence. You can share your feedback
with me by writing your comments.
Google playstore link
