5 ms·

People who have used this app, which kind of situations have you helped with? I want to help but am a bit nervous

by snuii 6y ago

miki123211 6y ago
I was the one who needed help, not the one who helped, but my issue was some handwriting ion a piece of paper that OCR couldn't deal with. The handwriting wasn't in english, and Be My Eyes is the only service of this kind that lets you select a different language. I received help, and the process went pretty smoothly.
- ska 6y ago
  How complicated is it to initiate a call? I've only seen the other side.
  - miki123211 6y ago
    Pretty easy. You open the app, click "call first available volunteer", and you're good to go. There's also a "specialized help" button, which lets you quickly connect to accessibility support hotlines for some companies, like Google and Microsoft for example.
ska 6y ago
Here are things I have helped with * find their friend in park when they got separated (mentioned elsewhere) * differentiate canned food when their system got messed up (e.g. canned corn vs canned beans, same size cans) * figure out which of two sweaters was the red one * reorganize paper money that had fallen out of pocket/wallet
- michaelmrose 6y ago
  I wonder if at least some of that might someday be done equally well by a computer which would be available 24/7
  - kadoban 6y ago
    Someday probably, but those are some fairly varied tasks and I suspect they're more difficult than they initially sound.
    - gowld 6y ago
      Color and text recognition are pretty well solved.
      - ska 6y ago
        First order color in good lighting is easy: is this sweater red or blue. Much harder "does this scarf match this sweater". text recognition is only solved in pretty well controlled situations also. Contextual adjustment in situations like this is something humans are really good at. You can easily imagine an automated system that works for some of these things, but is much slower and harder to use.
      - kadoban 6y ago
        Is there something that's going to be able to output "black with a picture of 3 wolves on it, and also it's stained"? For the cans, you might be able to have it identify corn vs green beans, maybe. But can you get it to tell you "hey rotate the one in the middle a bit, I can't see the label"? The finding a friend in the park seems real hard, depending on parameters. My point isn't that these are impossible problems. It's just that a human can currently do them better than a machine, even if the basic capabilities are doable in AI. At the very least it'd probably take a ton of engineering to expose all of that in any useful way.
  - jscholes 6y ago
    > I wonder if at least some of that might someday be done equally well by a computer which would be available 24/7 It already is to some degree. E.g. I have an application on my iPhone which reads the value of bills (in various currencies) with no noticeable delay, and another that can act as a colour detector although that is less reliable; maybe more useful if you want to know which is the light vs dark thing.
turbopony 6y ago
Helped someone complete a severely dated captcha on a government form. I get the impression most tasks are gonna be fairly mundane.
- fiveleavesleft 6y ago
  This. The number of calls I get from this app for people struggling to enter captchas in non-accessibility friendly websites is not funny. Such websites should be named and shamed somewhere in today's age. This is from India, BTW. Other situations I got calls for: - Help with navigating the installation wizard of some software. - A person trying to locate his right-foot's slipper while he had the other one on. This was a really wild one where I had to ask him to walk around the room, show underneath the bed, around some other objects etc. But to no avail. Finally, he thanked and disconnected saying he was tired :(. - Help with reading railway tickets, magazine articles, textbook chapters.
  - michaelmrose 6y ago
    There was a lawsuit here in the US against dominos that stated that the ADA ought to apply to a company's online presence as well as to their physical location. Hopefully in the long term such sites will have to be accessible.
    - gowld 6y ago
      That lawsuit said that Domino's had to give phone users the online-order discount. (Can't charge more for disability accomodations.)
KingPrad 6y ago
I've handled 2 calls (and missed a few others). 1. Woman asking what color a sweater was, to confirm its color. Was maybe a 30 second call. 2. Teenager with a box of paint supplies wondering if the box has an expiration date, since the paint felt weirdly thick. 2 minute call, then we chatted a few minutes.
philshem 6y ago
- two guys wanted to know what boxes of cereal they had - read recipients for 30+ pieces of mail - read prescription med bottle refill instructions (As the reader, the app has the feature to turn on the flashlight of the remote smartphone. It’s often quite dark in the room!)
habi 6y ago
I helped a person who needed to find out which container in his fridge contained low-fat or high-fat milk. Another person just asked me about the color of two shirts that were lying on the bed that he/she wanted to wear.

People who have used this app, which kind of situations have you helped with? I want to help but am a bit nervous

by snuii 6y ago

People who have used this app, which kind of situations have you helped with? I want to help but am a bit nervous

I was the one who needed help, not the one who helped, but my issue was some handwriting ion a piece of paper that OCR couldn't deal with. The handwriting wasn't in english, and Be My Eyes is the only service of this kind that lets you select a different language. I received help, and the process went pretty smoothly.

ska 6y ago
How complicated is it to initiate a call? I've only seen the other side.
- miki123211 6y ago
  Pretty easy. You open the app, click "call first available volunteer", and you're good to go. There's also a "specialized help" button, which lets you quickly connect to accessibility support hotlines for some companies, like Google and Microsoft for example.

ska 6y ago

Here are things I have helped with * find their friend in park when they got separated (mentioned elsewhere) * differentiate canned food when their system got messed up (e.g. canned corn vs canned beans, same size cans) * figure out which of two sweaters was the red one * reorganize paper money that had fallen out of pocket/wallet

michaelmrose 6y ago
I wonder if at least some of that might someday be done equally well by a computer which would be available 24/7
- kadoban 6y ago
  Someday probably, but those are some fairly varied tasks and I suspect they're more difficult than they initially sound.
  - gowld 6y ago
    Color and text recognition are pretty well solved.
    - ska 6y ago
      First order color in good lighting is easy: is this sweater red or blue. Much harder "does this scarf match this sweater". text recognition is only solved in pretty well controlled situations also. Contextual adjustment in situations like this is something humans are really good at. You can easily imagine an automated system that works for some of these things, but is much slower and harder to use.
    - kadoban 6y ago
      Is there something that's going to be able to output "black with a picture of 3 wolves on it, and also it's stained"? For the cans, you might be able to have it identify corn vs green beans, maybe. But can you get it to tell you "hey rotate the one in the middle a bit, I can't see the label"? The finding a friend in the park seems real hard, depending on parameters. My point isn't that these are impossible problems. It's just that a human can currently do them better than a machine, even if the basic capabilities are doable in AI. At the very least it'd probably take a ton of engineering to expose all of that in any useful way.
- jscholes 6y ago
  > I wonder if at least some of that might someday be done equally well by a computer which would be available 24/7 It already is to some degree. E.g. I have an application on my iPhone which reads the value of bills (in various currencies) with no noticeable delay, and another that can act as a colour detector although that is less reliable; maybe more useful if you want to know which is the light vs dark thing.

turbopony 6y ago

Helped someone complete a severely dated captcha on a government form. I get the impression most tasks are gonna be fairly mundane.

fiveleavesleft 6y ago
This. The number of calls I get from this app for people struggling to enter captchas in non-accessibility friendly websites is not funny. Such websites should be named and shamed somewhere in today's age. This is from India, BTW. Other situations I got calls for: - Help with navigating the installation wizard of some software. - A person trying to locate his right-foot's slipper while he had the other one on. This was a really wild one where I had to ask him to walk around the room, show underneath the bed, around some other objects etc. But to no avail. Finally, he thanked and disconnected saying he was tired :(. - Help with reading railway tickets, magazine articles, textbook chapters.
- michaelmrose 6y ago
  There was a lawsuit here in the US against dominos that stated that the ADA ought to apply to a company's online presence as well as to their physical location. Hopefully in the long term such sites will have to be accessible.
  - gowld 6y ago
    That lawsuit said that Domino's had to give phone users the online-order discount. (Can't charge more for disability accomodations.)

KingPrad 6y ago

I've handled 2 calls (and missed a few others). 1. Woman asking what color a sweater was, to confirm its color. Was maybe a 30 second call. 2. Teenager with a box of paint supplies wondering if the box has an expiration date, since the paint felt weirdly thick. 2 minute call, then we chatted a few minutes.

philshem 6y ago

- two guys wanted to know what boxes of cereal they had - read recipients for 30+ pieces of mail - read prescription med bottle refill instructions (As the reader, the app has the feature to turn on the flashlight of the remote smartphone. It’s often quite dark in the room!)

habi 6y ago

I helped a person who needed to find out which container in his fridge contained low-fat or high-fat milk. Another person just asked me about the color of two shirts that were lying on the bed that he/she wanted to wear.