Photography is a visual way to capture a moment in time. Photos can be used for artistic expression, and to remember significant events. Because photo taking, organizing and sharing traditionally requires visual information, those with no or limited sight often have problems with these activities. Previous work has made photo capturing without sight easier, however, there is little work that makes photo browsing and sharing blind-accessible. This project aims at facilitating independence for blind persons to take, organize and share photos through user-centered development of a smartphone application that can be used without sight. The work starts with an investigation of current practices of blind persons in these activities, continued with a review of existing applications, and finally the design and long-term evaluation of the application.
The overarching needs that this smartphone application aims to meet are the following:
- Photo Taking: Aiming, focusing, positioning, and framing; Easy way to get sighted help; Accessible device; Improving photo quality.
- Photo Organizing and Editing: Identifying what’s in the picture; Labeling the pictures; Manipulating pictures
- Photo Sharing: Easy way to get sighted help; Accessible photo sharing method.
Here is a video of the proposed system, Phodio, a blind accessible iPhone app designed to help blind people take and organize their photos for easier retrieval and sharing:
Researchers: DustinAdams, Sri Kurniawan. In collaboration with Harada, Sato, Asakawa, Takagi, IBM Research – Tokyo.