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One area where this kind of technique would be a game changer, I imagine, is for blind people to have their surroundings narrated in real time. For example, thr

One area where this kind of technique would be a game changer, I imagine, is for blind people to have their surroundings narrated in real time. For example, through a pair of glasses with a camera for input, and an earphone to listen to the continuous narration. I heard about an online service where people can sign up to help the blind by describing visual scenes that they capture on their mobile. There must be companies out there developing a similar service entirely run on machine learning.

InCityDreams 3y ago
I know yours is a small comment in a huge sea, but how would the comments know what the blind wanted to see? If I could describe what i can see now it would be a long list left to right. Do i include the sunlight reflecting off an industrial chimney? Is the chimney important? I do enjoy hallucinogenics which, to me, remove the very filters that keep us sane. As much as I love the problem, filtration will always be the problem, unless the environment is extremely controlled (like an art gallery), but even then...how to describe the Mona Lisa. Let alone its frame.
- reidjs 3y ago
  It’s a hard problem for sure. I guess You fine tune to their preferences. Everyone gets the “Giant bus headed straight towards you!!!!” Alert. But let’s say you’re at the grocery store, maybe it’s clever enough to read the aisle descriptions for example.
- lioeters 3y ago
  That does sound like an interesting and tough problem, how an intelligent agent can know what is relevant to the listener, and what to filter out. I imagine it would work similarly to how human brains do, or at least how we think they do. To notice the "big picture" first, recognize large shapes then smaller details, or faster moving things then static things. > remove the very filters that keep us sane Haha, yes, I know what you mean. If our brains paid attention to everything coming in through the doors of perception, our mind would be flooded with information, way too much for practical purposes. Occasionally it is helpful to access such a mode of experience, but the filters are necessary for daily life in society. We can't be going around in rapturous ecstasy of gnosis all the time. A related problem might be too much filtering, or the wrong criteria for the filters, missing what's important. I imagine this could be solved by a conversational interface, where the listener talks with the ambient narrator to zoom in/out and focus on details as desired.
squeaky-clean 3y ago
> I heard about an online service where real people can sign up to help blind people by describing visual scenes that they capture on their mobile For anyone curious, it's called "Be My Eyes". When there's a request, it will send a notification to a batch of people. I get about one notification per month, often I'm unable to answer it right then, and when I do I occasionally get a notice that someone else answered first. Tasks I've helped people with were things like going through an unsorted stack of bills and telling them the denominations, holding up a few T shirts and asking me which is the blue one, reading a pressure valve. Would recommend signing up. It feels good and there's no pressure to answer since it sends out the request to many people at once.

InCityDreams 3y ago

I know yours is a small comment in a huge sea, but how would the comments know what the blind wanted to see? If I could describe what i can see now it would be a long list left to right. Do i include the sunlight reflecting off an industrial chimney? Is the chimney important? I do enjoy hallucinogenics which, to me, remove the very filters that keep us sane. As much as I love the problem, filtration will always be the problem, unless the environment is extremely controlled (like an art gallery), but even then...how to describe the Mona Lisa. Let alone its frame.

reidjs 3y ago
It’s a hard problem for sure. I guess You fine tune to their preferences. Everyone gets the “Giant bus headed straight towards you!!!!” Alert. But let’s say you’re at the grocery store, maybe it’s clever enough to read the aisle descriptions for example.
lioeters 3y ago
That does sound like an interesting and tough problem, how an intelligent agent can know what is relevant to the listener, and what to filter out. I imagine it would work similarly to how human brains do, or at least how we think they do. To notice the "big picture" first, recognize large shapes then smaller details, or faster moving things then static things. > remove the very filters that keep us sane Haha, yes, I know what you mean. If our brains paid attention to everything coming in through the doors of perception, our mind would be flooded with information, way too much for practical purposes. Occasionally it is helpful to access such a mode of experience, but the filters are necessary for daily life in society. We can't be going around in rapturous ecstasy of gnosis all the time. A related problem might be too much filtering, or the wrong criteria for the filters, missing what's important. I imagine this could be solved by a conversational interface, where the listener talks with the ambient narrator to zoom in/out and focus on details as desired.

squeaky-clean 3y ago

> I heard about an online service where real people can sign up to help blind people by describing visual scenes that they capture on their mobile For anyone curious, it's called "Be My Eyes". When there's a request, it will send a notification to a batch of people. I get about one notification per month, often I'm unable to answer it right then, and when I do I occasionally get a notice that someone else answered first. Tasks I've helped people with were things like going through an unsorted stack of bills and telling them the denominations, holding up a few T shirts and asking me which is the blue one, reading a pressure valve. Would recommend signing up. It feels good and there's no pressure to answer since it sends out the request to many people at once.