what happened to vizLens app?

By Josh Kennedy, 25 February, 2023

Forum

iOS and iPadOS

Does anyone know what happened to the vizLens app? I was really hoping to get it so I could use my microwave independently. Vizlens is, or was, an app where you take a picture of an inaccessible appliance's control panel. then sighted people label it. and then when you use it next time, you load this app and it uses AI to track your finger as you use the appliance, reading what your finger is touching on the inaccessible appliance control panel such as an unlabeled control panel for a microwave.

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On the App Store

https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/vizlens/id1577855541

Looks like the description was recently updated. However there doesn't seem to be much activity.
First time I've heard of vizLens. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. It could be very helpful.

Human-AI Lab at University of Michigan

Hi, we are the developers and researchers of this project. The VizLens app was recently released on the App Store (vizlens.org), and we are actively maintaining it and soliciting feedback. Feel free to tweet at us (https://twitter.com/vizlens/status/1655681800356675587) or email us at humanailab-vizlens@umich.edu

Not working as expected

Hello,

I have given a try to the VizLens app, but I am experiencing the following problems:

Most of the time when trying to take a picture of the appliance interface, no matter how close I am to the object or whether I hold iPhone steady, I get the „Bad quality image error stating that "The captured image is blurry. Try to take a picture while steady.““.
If I eventually manage to add a new interface, after double-tapping on it and pressing the „Interaction“ tab, it navigates me back to the interfaces list, that is, not to the interaction mode.

Please, any ideas what I am doing wrong?

Thanks.

Best regards Adam

Re: Adam Samec

Hi Adam,

Thank you very much for bringing the technical concerns to our attention! Over the past week, our team has been actively working on resolving the issues that you highlighted. A new version of the app has been released on the App Store.

1. For image capturing, we have adjusted the threshold to make it less stringent about needing optimal picture quality. It is recommended to take the photo with a good lighting condition (e.g., during the daylight time, or with extra lights). Sometimes it may falsely give you the error of "blurry image" if the photo was taken in an environment with poor lighting conditions.

2. It is a technical issue that causes the interaction tab to not work. We have fixed this in our new version of the app and it should be working now!

Please feel free to upgrade VizLens to the latest version and see if it works. If there's any other issue or feedback please let us know anytime. We are committed to continually improving our app based on your valuable feedback. Thank you for your ongoing support!

Best,
VizLens team

What's New in VizLens 1.1.0

What's New in VizLens 1.1.0:
- Fixed issue with launching interactive mode
- Improved image capture experience
- Additional description of polite mode

We keep improving the app based on your valuable feedback. Thanks for the ongoing support!

Download VizLens: https://apps.apple.com/app/id1577855541

Still having the Issue

I seem to be having no luck with in the Interaction tab of where it is suppose to allow me to use my fingers to point to a text that I want the app to read. I'll admit that I am using iOS 17 Beta and I wasn't sure if this is the reason why this isn't working as expected. The odd thing is that I do get an tone indicator that it detects my finger but I just can't get any response back of the text I'm pointing to. Is this an issue with VizLens or is it plausible that its iOS 17 Beta cauinsg the problem? Is anyone else having this issue as well?