Technology has come a long way, but until now there has not been technology to allow people with visual impairments and reading difficulties to become more independent without using their hands. OrCam, the leader in artificial intelligence assistive devices for people with visual impairment, blindness, and reading difficulties, is proud to announce the new voice-activated feature. This new feature allows the users to utilize their OrCam MyEye and OrCam Read devices completely hands-free. The users will be able to talk intuitively with their OrCam device to read menus, newspapers, books, and more.

OrCam Technologies Co-founder and Co-CEO, Amnon Shashua, mentioned that “More than a decade of OrCam’s R&D efforts have enabled us to offer the most natural user interface for our pioneering assistive solutions”. Additionally, his explanation about the new release is as follows:

“This newly-available software release enables an entirely new level of accessibility for people with visual impairments and those with reading challenges. OrCam’s advancement allows our devices to listen to, comprehend – and respond to – natural voice commands, thereby transforming the devices’ complete operation into an intuitive and enjoyable user experience. To operate any device function, OrCam users simply speak out loud, and they can now also choose to use voice commands to query and change all settings. We are proud to provide this impactful software release to current OrCam users, as well as integrate the update on all devices going forward.”

Hey OrCam: Read Amounts

Imagine you are blind and you are holding the last month’s electricity bill. You just want to understand how much you need to pay for the electricity. However, on the bill, there are many numbers like cost per Kilowatts, your average usage, your customer number, and more. You cannot find the exact amount on your electricity bill because there are no bullets in numbers, which makes it difficult for those who are blind and visually impaired to read their bills.

“Hey OrCam, Read Amounts” is one of the vocal commands of OrCam devices that will help you understand written amounts on your electricity bill. Unlike other reading devices, you do not need to read each number but just those which contain the amount. Your OrCam device will inform you of the number of the amounts written on the bill and vocalize just them. It is just that simple.

Voice Recognition Technology Elevates Life of Blinds

Voice recognition technology is a breakthrough solution to help and empower the blind and visually impaired community, as well as those with reading difficulties such as dyslexia. It can replace the manual operation of appliances with voice commands like “turn on the TV” or “play music”. A lot of devices we use every day are already smart, so now it is time for your OrCam device!

OrCam MyEye and OrCam Read can guide you through vocalizing the environment, reading text, and recognizing faces. With voice recognition technology, you can speak to activate the functionality on your device and utilize it without using your hands or gestures. The OrCam device allows users to use their device hands-free so that they can enjoy whatever activities arise during the day without interruption.

When Smart Reading Meets Voice Assistant

Both OrCam MyEye and OrCam Read utilize the Smart Reading feature which provides the best reading experience for people with blindness, visual impairment, and reading difficulties. In order to activate this feature, you can control the OrCam with your voice by saying “Hey OrCam, Smart Reading”. The Smart Reading feature allows you to choose which word to start reading from, search for specific numbers and serves many other useful functions.

From now on, you can use your OrCam voice assistant to start and then quit the Smart Reading feature. With the new vocal commands, you can start face learning, product learning, and barcode learning modes just by using the new voice assistant completely hands-free. Here, you can watch all the new features of OrCam version 9.10.