Introducing Tactile Sense Camera App

By hassaku, 29 September, 2020

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Just the other day, I released a free camera app in the App Store called PenTapTrace, which is designed for the visually impaired. The feature of this camera app is that you can check the location of text, faces, and objects by tracing the image you take on the screen, using vibration. Even if you are blind or have difficulty seeing, you can use this app to better compose a photo or make effective use of various image recognition applications such as OCR applications.
To find PenTapTrace in the App Store, search for "PenTapTrace" in the App Store, or follow the App Store link from the app's introduction page below. You can also see a demo video on the app page. I'm looking forward to your feedback and requests. Thanks.

PenTapTrace
https://www.paic.jp/pentaptrace

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Comments

By Brad on Sunday, October 25, 2020 - 23:22

I've not ttried the app and understand it's for those who want to take pictures but, the OCR function you mention on your website doesn't sound that useful as we already have apps like Seeing AI that can already read documents and text out loud.

I wonder what others will think of this app.

Keep in mind; i'm not saying it's bad, just that there's quite a few of these appps for the blind out there and there doesn't seam to be much research put into them.

Asking blind people what they want would be a great start but a lot of app devs seam to forget that part.

Hi Brad,

Thank you very much for your very insightful reply, thank you very much.

I have actually released an OCR app before. (Unfortunately, it's only available in Japanese). And I've heard from those users that various OCR apps are also difficult to capture whole text in the camera in the first place. That's why I've developed an app that specializes in checking the composition of photos. Although I'm not sure it's enough.

In fact, the app I released does not include an OCR feature itself, such as reading text out loud. I apologize for the confusion in my description of the app.

Anyway, the advice you give is spot on. I will keep it in mind. Thanks.

By Ali Colak on Sunday, October 25, 2020 - 23:22

As someone who has had difficulty with finding a picture, I think that this is potentially a good idea that I will check out.

By LaBoheme on Sunday, October 25, 2020 - 23:22

this is the kind of app by a developer who knows how to think outside the box, extremely useful.

two suggestions:
1) optionally, create a standard camera shutter button instead of simply two finger double tap as a only way to take picture, i find a standard shutter button easier to operate.
2) if possible, support loading photos from photo library for analysis.

By LaBoheme on Sunday, October 25, 2020 - 23:22

it does not support landscape mode, i.e., holding the device in landscape, the photo taken still comes out in portrait orientation. can you add landscape support?