Developed by researchers at the University of Singapore, AiSee is a discreet wearable that combines a 13-megapixel camera with a bone conductive speaker that is able to identify objects a wearer is holding and is meant to be especially useful for blind grocery shoppers.
Sony's new DSC-HX99RNV is a retinal projection camera system that is designed to help people with visual impairments better see the world around them and allow them to enjoy photography in ways they previously could not.
Rachael Andrews is a visually impaired photographer who first used a camera purely as a practical tool to help her see everyday objects such as food labels.
Photography is an inherently visual medium, but that does not mean those without perfect eyesight can't enjoy it. Sony seems to have recognized this and added a screen reading feature to its Alpha 7 IV camera to help the vision-impaired.
Esaraa Ismail is visually impaired but hasn't let that stop her from taking up photography. Instead of relying on her eye, she uses her senses of hearing and touch to guide her throughout the image-taking process.
Artificial intelligence developer Jagadish K. Mahendran and his team at the University of Georgia have designed an AI-powered, voice-activated, camera system that can help the visually impaired navigate common challenges such as traffic signs, hanging obstacles, and crosswalks.
Facebook has been using AI to audibly describe the contents of photos for the visually impaired for some time, but it's improving those efforts this year. The latest version of the model promises to provide much more information than before.
Instagram is taking a step toward being more accessible by adding auto and manual descriptions of photos for visually impaired users.
Here's a 15-minute video featuring the internationally acclaimed sports photographer David Katz, a man who was diagnosed as being legally blind when he was just 3 months old.
Here's a wonderful 6-minute documentary about the Seeing with Photography Collective, a New York-based group that brings together the work of visually impaired and sighted photographers.
Craig Royal is an award-winning fine art photographer based in Tampa, Florida. Visit his website here.
PetaPixel: Can you tell us a little about yourself and your background?
Craig Royal: I'm a visually impaired fine art photographer. I'm legally blind due to a congenital form of optic nerve atrophy. I have been legally blind since birth. My vision had been 20/200 corrected up until 1992, when a white blind spot began to develop in the center of my visual field in both eyes.
Sonia Soberats' journey in photography didn't start until she couldn't see the photographs she was producing. Around two decades ago, she lost her eyesight to glaucoma between losing her son to Hodgkin's disease and her daughter to ovarian cancer. At the turn of the century, Soberats began taking photography lessons in New York City as a form of therapy and self-expression. Her technique of choice? Light painting.
MIT's Media Lab is no stranger to innovation; from super-high-speed cameras to cameras that can see around walls, they always seem to be on the cutting edge of imaging innovation. Their newest project, the EyeRing, is yet another innovative idea that could some day revolutionize the way we take pictures and experience our world.