Introducing Eye of Providence, a new iOS app to help the blind identify objects, text and colors

By Eye of Providence, 3 November, 2016

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Hey folks,

I built an app called Eye of Providence; it describes text, colors, and general information about an image.

Here is the link to the app: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1162510082?mt=8&pt=118228813

I'd really appreciate it if you guys can try it out and give some feedback. I'll take the information and release another version with you guys in mind.

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Comments

By JTran2013 on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

Hi,
I just tested out the app. The app is accessible with the buttons in the app being labeled properly. I will post more feedback on how well it describes each photo I take.

I have a question about the in app purchase. I purchased the in app purchase. Once I use up all of my shots would I have to purchase more each time I run out?

I like how the app will tell you how many shots you have left after you take each photo.

Joann

By Eye of Providence on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

Thanks for trying it out. To answer your question, yes, you will have to purchase more shots once you run out.

By Malcolm13 on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

Just tried the app and I am impressed at the detail given well done!

By Monica Rose on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

In reply to by Malcolm13

I just now saw where the developer posted this app. I enjoy trying new apps, gadgets and gismos. I will try it but I'm terrible at taking pictures. I will try it though and let you know what I think.

By falcon wings on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

This app seems promising from what I have tried of it so far, however here are a few things that could make it even more useful and the app over all better if added in.
1. When making a i app purchase, voiceover didn't actually read the $$ the in app purchase was to be for. It did say 100 shots or pictures, as you will,but nothing about how much that cost.
Next, is the ability to add pictures from the photo library. What if the picture I want the app to process is already there in my camera role, perhaps from some other place etc.
So, currently the detail given by the app is good enough, it only works if you can shoot photos of the things you want recognise just at that point of time and can't have it load pictures from the camera role.
Good app,still. Keep it up.

Thanks for the review. I am doing a lot of changes, since I launched it not too long ago. Some things to expect in the very near future:

1. Text view to interact with text with VoiceOver.
2. Purchasing price is now visible early on
3. Camera features: toggling camera and flash controls
4. Compatibility with iPad
5. Compatibility with iOS 10

Your guys' feedback is very important to me and it's what makes me keep working. Cheers!

By falcon wings on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

In reply to by Eye of Providence

Hello there,
For it having in development and it being new its really quite great like I said, however
What I was talking about in my comment was about being able to open a already existing photo from the photo library in the app.
I.E I save a photo from facebook to my phone, and then being able to use this app to recognise the downloaded photo.
Either way, great work, keep it up! The level of detail is also good.

By Eye of Providence on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

In reply to by falcon wings

Hey Falcon Wings,

I added the feature today. It should be out by tomorrow around 9 PST.

If you like the app and its had any meaningful impact on you, please write a review on the app store. I would greatly appreciate it.

https://appsto.re/us/c8Nsfb.i

By JeffB on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

How does this differ from Tap Tap See other than having to pay for shots? Is it faster? Is it more accurate?

By Eye of Providence on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

In reply to by JeffB

Hey Jeff,

There are several distinctions to be made. I'm speculating that TapTapSee does image recognition with mechanical turks: people have access to what picture you've taken on the other side of the app. We do image analysis just purely with software, which means an increase in privacy.

The fact that TapTapSee uses mechanical turks mean that object recognition may be more accurate when it guesses what it's seeing in the general sense. We also do object recognition but to be honest, it's not there yet.

What we do better in is reading any length of texts. We also support a large amount of languages and have an interface that lets you interact with any size of text retrieved from an image.

We do color recognition. TapTapSee has other features as well but I think I covered the main differences.

Cheers,

By JeffB on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

Cool I'll try it out thanks.

By Armando on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

Can you put a feature so the app can access the iPhones photo library to find pictures with text or objects?
Thanks.

By Armando on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

How private is the photo and can people access the photo that the user takes?

By Eye of Providence on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

In reply to by Armando

So there are two layers of privacy policies, but I'll sum it up for you.

The Eye of Providence service layer doesn't store any of your information.

According to Google's privacy policy: 5.2 Use of Customer Data. Google will not access or use Customer Data, except as necessary to provide the Services to Customer.

If you want more details, check out the privacy policies for both:

https://cloud.google.com/terms/
http://geteyeofprovidence.com/privacy.html

By Eye of Providence on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

In reply to by Armando

I submitted an update with this feature yesterday. Hopefully it goes through soon :)

By Armando on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

When viewing the privacy policy for the app, it gives me a 500 internal server error.

By Armando on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

When you download the app, how many shots do you get by default?

By Wahid Raza on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

Hi first of all hads off to you
You made a awsam app, i have tryed ny self
And result are possitive
I have same question, that in app purchase
Does it for life time? And in future updates
When come this feture and other when you add to future updates will get free?
Or we should payed also in future?
Thanks..

By Eye of Providence on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

In reply to by Wahid Raza

Thanks for the kind words.

In app purchases last forever on your phone.

All the features, like camera controls, camera roll, etc. that I develop into the app will be free to use. However, you will of course need to purchase the shots to use said features :)

Cheers

By falcon wings on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

With the new update, this app simply rocks!
I tried a few different text photos, and a few pictures with just people in them.
I also ran the text pictures through knfbReader more on that in a moment, and the pictures with objects/people on taptapsee along with this app.
$1.99 for 100 pictures is really, and is specially good for both people who have knfbReader reader and for those that can't simply aford $100 on an application.
On to the results
Text/ocr this app bate knfbReader reader,hands down. I didn't take the picture for any of the apps,but used a picture I already had on my phone, and man, oh man. There's the difference of miles and miles between the 2.
KnfbReader, did a good job, but this app did it better. Where knfbReader mangled words, I didn't notice any in this app.
So, if you are like me,and have to use a ocr app to read notices and the like, this app would suit you perfect, along with identification of clothing colours etc, no need to run to 2 different apps.
Object recognition though, wasn't as good as taptapsee, where as taptapsee obviously was better, and was able to tell me the picture was of a woman in a sleeveless black dress, this app just told me the colours, and something about hairstyles.
The quick update for the access to library feature is truely appreciated! Thank you!
I did try to write a review on the appstore, but tapping on the review this app button did nothing, some issue with the store,maybe?
I sure do intend to write a 5star review about this app.

By Eye of Providence on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

Thanks for your kind words. Turns out there was yet another bug that prevented them from rating the app. The fix and a couple compatibility issues with iOS 10 has been patched with version 1.5. Here is the link:

https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1162510082?mt=8&pt=118228813

I really enjoyed taking the feedback and re-working the app. Please do let me know if there are any other stuff that you guys want in the app.

Cheers,

By Armando on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

Can you put a feature in which you can change voices to the highest quality?

By Eye of Providence on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

In reply to by Armando

Sure, I will put that on the list :)

By Eye of Providence on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

Hey guys,

I just had a question about identifying color. How do you guys want it done? I just updated the service so that it will tell you the dominant color on the image and also the palette of colors in the image. Right now, I'm taking some understandable names for colors like 'lavender' and 'pinkish' but I'm not sure if that is the best option for describing color.

Do you guys have a preference? Do you have another app that you use for detecting color? Do you like their styling of detecting color?

Let me know,
Cheers,

By Armando on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

Hi. I double-tapped the camera button and it didn't say if I was using the back facing or the front facing camera. Is this a bug?

By Eye of Providence on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

In reply to by Armando

Thanks. It's not a bug but it is a user experience issue. I'll get to it in the next patch.

Cheers,

By J.R. on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

I was looking at this thread, does this app identify bar codes? For example, where I work, we get stickers with bar codes for the various labels we do. I get mixed results with camfind, which I have had results on. Haven't tried KNFB reader with these labels to determine if it would give me anything. Also, unless I missed it, there was not an answer in regards to how many shots we get when first downloading the app, and i'd like to know that. I am going to get it, but won't use it until i see an answer to this one. $1.99 for 100 shots isn't bad. This does sound very interesting, and I might try this app on some print at some point although I've had good luck with knfb reader, especially when someone sighted helped me align the camera during a class. Keep up the great work, and do let us know how many shots we get by default.

By Eye of Providence on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

In reply to by J.R.

Thanks for the kind words. To answer your question:

1. Currently, the app does not identify bar codes.
2. You get 10 shots for free upon downloading the app.

Please do try it and let me know what you think.

Cheers,

By J.R. on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

In reply to by Eye of Providence

Thanks for this. I'll pass on the app, as I need something else which would detect bar codes on stickers as part of my jjob so I can help put stickers away or learn what stickers go with what items. I do like the idea of it, but if it can't detect numbers on a set of stickers, the app may not be useful to me. If anyone has experience with this, I'd love to hear your results using this app with bar codes, or stickers with numbers that would be used to catalogue items in a warehouse setting.

By Tasha on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

Is there a way to integrate the app into Facebook so that if there is an image on facebook with text, you can just tap it and your app will recognize the text? This would be much easier than downloading the image from Facebook and then converting it. there are tons of memes on Facebook, with images and text, that I currently can't access. The automated Facebook image description tool just says image may contain text.

By Eye of Providence on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

In reply to by Tasha

Hmm I'm trying to find the easiest way to do what I think you are asking. If I understood you correctly, you want to analyze an image from facebook. Could you takr a screenshot from your device and use the camera roll feature to analyze the screenshot?

By Tasha on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

In reply to by Eye of Providence

Theoretically, yes, but that's a big pain (a lot of keystrokes). It would be much better to be able to analyze the image within Facebook. Can this be done using the Facebook API?

By Armando on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

Can you put a feature where you can save the pictures to your camera roll after you have taken the picture?

By Saqib on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

Hi. I've been test driving this app and I'm pleased to report that this app has read all my printed mail and documents without any mangled text and I have taken screenshots of PDF files that weren't accessible and the app processed the text with no issues at all. I can't believe how good this app is as I wasn't expecting a great deal from it when I first read about it on here earlier this month. The business model for this app is ideal for those who can't afford to spend £79 on KNFB Reader and this app is now my main tool for reading my daily mail. You will always get my support. I do have a feature request and that is to import a PDF file but it's not a big deal if that can't be implemented as the screenshot method works magnificently well. Once again I congradulate you on developing a great app that gives us the users more independence in our daily lives.

By Eye of Providence on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

In reply to by Saqib

If you have some time, please leave a review on the app store. It would encourage others to try out the app.

I'm taking a short little break from all EoP tasks. But when I have some time, I will get to it!

:)

By Armando on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

Hi. Sometimes when I take a photo, it takes a long time to process the image. I have to close the app and then reopen it. I tested this app with a package of poptarts and tested with apple sause. When I tested this app with plane milk, it read the text.

By HarmonicaPlayer on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 15:07

just got the new app discussed earlier and noticed the following things:)
1. all buttons labelled right:)
2. snapped a photo of a page of text and it got the text right.
here is 2 queries i have. 1. there is no indicator of shots left. when i snapped a photo of some text it never spoke shots left. Can you integrate that status item in app like to the right of take picture or to the right of go to text view? then you'd kbnow how many shots you have left and how many you have if you choose to make a purchase:)
keep up the fine work:) PS: also how would you know if your camera is focused right at object for best shot if no tone/beep is done?
hhave a good one:)
if you want to email me see my profile for contact info:)

By Eye of Providence on Monday, December 26, 2016 - 15:07

Hiya folks!

Hope you guys are having a great christmas. To tell you a bit about myself, I'm currently in Vientiane, Laos doing a little bit of backpacking. But that's not why I'm shooting you the message. I have one new update: I just built the history feature. So now you are able to refer back to the snaps you have taken.

Once again, merry christmas and have a happy new year!

The update to the app will be visible probably within a few days after the 27th.

By Saqib on Sunday, February 26, 2017 - 15:07

Hi. Since upgrading to the iPhone 7 +! The app no longer processes the image after taking a snap. I have 110 credits and I have re-installed the app and still the app won't work properly.

Thank you for using EoP. Unfortunately, shots do not carry over through different phones. The shots are exclusive to the devices that they were purchased on. We're sorry about the inconvenience.

By Studio Jay on Sunday, February 26, 2017 - 15:07

Hi, First of all, congratulations on a fantastic app. I purchased 100 snapshots using my iPad, thinking that they would also be available on my iPhone, but I only had 10 snapshots when I installed the app on my iPhone. Is there a way to transfer the 100 snapshots to my iPhone since I would much rather have them available on the phone? Thanks in advance for any help. Jason

By Eye of Providence on Sunday, February 26, 2017 - 15:07

Thank you for your support! As of the moment, shots are not transferrable as each devices are treated as individual accounts. We do plan on considering implementing transferrable shots sometime in the future, as there are others who have requested this feature. Once again, thank you for your support and we'll keep you updated for good things to come.

By Studio Jay on Sunday, February 26, 2017 - 15:07

In reply to by Eye of Providence

Thanks for your reply. At the price you are charging for the snapshots, it's no problem. Kind regards, Jason