It’s an incredibly exciting day for Be My Eyes and the V I community. Be My AI is today moving into an open beta cycle and will be massively expanding its availability over the coming days for iPhone users.
Having been a part of the beta testing group since very early on, I have seen Be My AI evolve to the version everyone will soon have access to. We’ve been through some incredible ups and downs, most notably with the legal issues around describing faces but seeing the dedication and determination both Open AI and Be My Eyes have shown to get this potentially life changing product to us completely free of charge has been simply awe inspiring and whats more, they’ve pulled it off. So here we are, everyone in the world will soon have access to the most powerful AI powered tool to describe the visual world that has ever existed. At no cost!
To use Be My AI, launch the Be My Eyes app and tap on the Be My AI tab at the bottom of your screen. It’s the second tab from the left. Just take a photo and wait for the description, you’ll get some hold music while you wait. You can then ask follow up questions or just send another photo to be described. The more creative you get with your questions, The more Be My AI will surprise you with what it can do and if you aren’t getting the information you need, don’t worry. You can still call a sighted volunteer directly from the Be My AI tab. You can also find “Describe with Be My AI in the share sheet so you’ll be able to get descriptions of pictures in your photo’s, in apps and around the web.
In order to spread the word about this technology far and wide, Be My AI would very much appreciate testimonials and stories about how you have found ways to use this technology to improve your life. If you have stories you’d like to share, please post to your social media channels with the #BeMyAI Thats #Be My AI so screen readers can pronounce it correctly. Some ideas for what you might think about sharing are:
How Be My AI has affected you and your daily life.
Have you found any interesting ways Be My AI can help you understand your world?
Has Be My AI been able to help you complete previously difficult or impossible tasks?
Have you been able to use Be My AI to make connections with the people around you and feel more included in the visual world?
How do you feel about having an app that can describe your world in so much detail?
How do you see Be My AI fitting into your life and improving what it means to live with sight loss?
Any and all stories and testimonials would be greatly appreciated, Either
Video’s of you using Be My AI.
Video’s of you talking about your experiences with Be My AI.
Audio recordings of you talking about how you are using Be My AI.
Written testimonials about using Be My AI.
Be My Eyes will be promoting your video’s and written testimonials.
Let’s get Be My AI trending and raise awareness about this new technology.
Comments
Incredible
So Be My AI is working now!!! I had it describe a photo of my dog and photos off instagram I was wanting to know what they were. The descriptions are just wow incredible. I love it.
Curious hallucination
Firstly, know that I absolutely love this app. And you need to be slightly sensible when you use it and not take everything it says as fact. But had a curious experience with it.
Firstly, I guess it was obviously having issues as it took a number of attempts for my photo to get accepted, then after a couple of follow-ons it stopped working again. Which I guess is normal for now.
Anyway I finally took a picture of my room and it described in nicely as always. And I asked, "is there a retractable dog lead in the picture?".
"Sure" it replied and it told me that the lead was hanging on the door handle right in front of me and at about waist height. So I was fumbling around trying to find it. It wasn't on the door handle but I thought maybe it got confused with a window handle, but I wasn't sure where the handles were.
So I asked it to describe the lead as I was a little unconvinced. It described a black grib handle with a grey cord which is about what I was expecting. But try as I might, I couldn't find it. Yes I should maybe have called a volunteer at that point but I have a stupid reluctance to do so. (Oh the horrors of human interaction!)
(Side-note - thanks very much for whoever decided to invent the ornament. It feels like my whole house is booby trapped.)
So I waited for my wife to come home. Turns out there was no lead in the room at all. The only thing we could think is that there were keys in the door lock, but nothing like a black rubber handled lead hanging from the door handle.
So yes my moment of jubilation at being able to find something by myself without asking for anyone to help was somewhat cut short.
Still, curious how it described something that wasn't even there. I'm guessing it just described what it thought a retractable dog lead looks like.
Oh well, I guess this app is going to improve over time. And it does offer a lot of value to me even if it can't be fully trusted.
This is the first time I've come across a true hallucination that I know of. I've had Chat CPT tell me a lot of things that were blatantly untrue but not this before.
Hey Grieves
Hi. I don't want to insult or offend you in any way. I'm just puzzled why you need assistance finding your own stuff?
In my own dimwitted life, I have a place for everything, and everything is in its place, so there's never any question about me finding my own stuff independently.
There are two exceptions:
1. My wife inadvertently or my cat intentionally moves something that belongs to me. In these cases, I sometimes have to ask for assistance locating the item, although I've completely given up trying to ask my cat. He lies.
2. I knock something off or drop it, resulting in a lot of crawling around on my knees, muttering, sometimes ending with me asking for help.
Otherwise, smiling, I always locate my own stuff!
Just curious, mind. No intense offended.
Bruce
Bruce Harrell
Not all of people are like us. Leave it in a specific place to find it. Blaming the cat, how low can you get. Are sure the cat did it. Makes it easy if you have a place for specific things. Help with sanaty.
Strange reply
I am guessing you didn’t mean that to sound judgmental so I am trying not to take it that way.
The last time I saw the lead was probably a couple of years ago when I maybe had enough sight to see it. The dog leads were in the car where they normally are. But unusually I was not in the car with them. My wife was walking on of our dogs and I was at home with the other. She had her leg amputated on Friday. I thought I might lead her around the garden for a minute to get some air and attend to business. But I couldn’t find the lead so thought I would try Be My Eyes.
But I can’t say that I am perfect enough that I can locate every one of my possessions. For things I need every day, yes I do tend to put them somewhere I can find them. But I am not always where I think I am, so sometimes things go missing. Add sighted people to the equation and that makes it more tricky.
Sorry I hadn’t really expected to have to justify my attempt to use this app. But also I don’t think you meant anything by it, so apologies if I am just being a tad over-sensitive.
i don’t think Bruce meant any harm.
Hey Mr. Grieves. It sounds like a few things caused a slight misunderstanding but I really don’t think Bruce meant anything by his comment. He did say twice that he didn’t mean to cause offence. Maybe he thought a dog lead would be something a person would use daily so usually would be able to locate. Not having used something for a couple of years is definitely not something I could locate without a lot of feeling around even though I’m pretty on top of where my stuff is too. It sounds like you’ve got an enormous amount going on if your wife has just had an amputation and you’ve lost sight in the last couple of years. I really feel for you and I hope things are okay and you’re coping. I’ve lost all my sight in the last couple of years too, it’s not a nice thing to go through. Not nice at all. I just wanted to say something because I didn’t hear any malice at all in Bruces comment. Just a question made on an assumption that you’d use a lead more often than that. I hope your wife makes a speedy recovery and things settle down for you as soon as possible.
i see it now
Hey Grieves,
I see now I misunderstood when you wrote: "So yes my moment of jubilation at being able to find something by myself without asking for anyone to help was somewhat cut short."
I'm glad you gave me the benefit of the doubt, and I'm glad I reread your earlier post after reading your most recent post. What I had thought you meant in the earlier post surprised me. Now that I understand, I bow in apology and say again I'm glad you prevented yourself from taking offense.
Bruce
P.S. Oliver? I suspect all cats lie, but in such a good natured manner we can't help but love them. smile
Woah! I thought it was his dog that had the amputation!
I hope I'm not a domino in a line of misunderstandings here, but Mr. Grieves, if your wife just suffered an amputation, you have my deepest sympathy. I would never have knowingly written something, however innocent, so callous in the face of what must be your and your wife's pain and sorrow. I will pray for her best recovery. I ask God to hold and comfort you both.
Most sincerely,
Bruce
My dog had the amputa
My dog had the amputa
So my new name is domino’.
Sorry for the misunderstanding, I slowed voiceover down and there it was. Well, apologies for that. I still feel for you, a dog having an amputation is still incredibly stressful and I hope the dog recovers quickly.
@Bruce etc
No worries. apologies - I can be a bit over-sensitive, particularly when stressed and not sleeping properly. But now I've read the other comments, it would make sense that a dog lead is a fairly obvious thing I'd need to use on a regular basis, so if I had to use Be My AI every time then it would be a bit of a waste of time all round!
And, yes, my wife wasn't driving around 2 days after having her leg removed, but it would have been impressive!
Anyway, all good - apologies for my part in this tangent.
Using Be My AI and Seeing AIto setup my Xfinity Gateway
Thought you all might be interested in this. I live alone. I needed a new Network Gateway router from Xfinity. After receiving it at home, I took a picture of it using Be My AI and it told me what all the ports were. Using Perplexity, I found out more information on what to expect like there is a label on the bottom of the device with needed information. I took a picture of that using Seeing AI because Be My AI still don't read text all that well, for me at least. All of this along with the Xfinity app, I was able to install my Gateway router, install my WiFi router to the gateway. One of the last instructions from Xfinity app s. was to hit the power button and wait for the white light to come on. I took a picture of the top of the device with Be My AI and it told me there was a power button at a certain location. I missed that on my initial exploration because it was flushed into the top and easy to mis. After hitting the power button, I took another picture and Be My AI told me there were two lights. I asked what color they were and it said one was white and the other was not turned on.
All of this with no sighted assist.
danny
Re: Using Be My AI and Seeing AIto setup my Xfinity Gateway.
Rock on. 🤘