The vOICe for Android
Free App
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About The vOICe for Android
See with your ears! The vOICe for Android maps live camera views to soundscapes, offering augmented reality and unprecedented visual detail for the totally blind through sensory substitution and computer vision. Also includes live talking OCR, a talking color identifier, talking compass, talking face detector and a talking GPS locator, while Eye-D and Aipoly object recognition can be launched from The vOICe for Android by tapping the left or right screen edge.
Is it an augmented reality game or a serious tool? It can be both, depending on what you want it to be! The ultimate goal is to provide a form of synthetic vision to the blind, but sighted users can simply have fun playing the game of sight-without-eyesight. Visually impaired users with severe tunnel vision can try if the auditory feedback helps them notice changes in the visual periphery. The vOICe for Android runs on smartphones and tablets, but is also compatible with most smart glasses, using the tiny camera in these glasses and a special user interface to generate a live sonic augmented reality overlay, hands-free! You may want to use an external battery connected via USB cable to keep the smart glasses battery from draining too quickly. You can help us by blogging and tweeting about your experiences, your use cases, and about how *you* learn to see with sound.
How does it work? The vOICe uses pitch for height and loudness for brightness in one-second left to right scans of any view: a rising bright line sounds as a rising tone, a bright spot as a beep, a bright filled rectangle as a noise burst, a vertical grid as a rhythm. Best used with stereo headphones for the most immersive experience and most detailed auditory resolution.
Just experiment with simple visual patterns first, because real-life imagery is extremely complex. Randomly drop a bright item such as a DUPLO brick on a dark table top, and learn to reach for it through sound alone (close your eyes if you have eyesight). Next try and explore your own safe home environment, and learn to associate the complex sound patterns with what you already know is there. Sighted users can also use the app with Google Cardboard compatible devices through a swipe-down on the main screen to toggle the binocular view.
For serious users: learning to see with sound is like learning a foreign language or learning to play a musical instrument, really challenging your perseverance and brain plasticity. It may well be the ultimate brain training system, bridging the senses through artificial synesthesia. A general training manual for The vOICe (not specific to the Android version) is available online at
http://www.seeingwithsound.com/manual/The_vOICe_Training_Manual.htm
Why is The vOICe free? Because our foremost goal is to make a real change by lowering barriers to use as much as we can. You will find that competing technologies cost upwards of $10,000 and yet have lower specs. The perceptual resolution offered by The vOICe is unmatched even by $100,000 "bionic eye" retinal implants (PLoS ONE 7(3): e33136).
The vOICe for Android supports English, Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Estonian, Hungarian, Polish, Slovak, Turkish, Russian, Chinese, Korean and Arabic (menu Options | Language).
Please report bugs to feedback@seeingwithsound.com, and visit the web page http://www.seeingwithsound.com/android.htm for detailed description and disclaimers. We are on Twitter at @seeingwithsound.
Thank you!
Is it an augmented reality game or a serious tool? It can be both, depending on what you want it to be! The ultimate goal is to provide a form of synthetic vision to the blind, but sighted users can simply have fun playing the game of sight-without-eyesight. Visually impaired users with severe tunnel vision can try if the auditory feedback helps them notice changes in the visual periphery. The vOICe for Android runs on smartphones and tablets, but is also compatible with most smart glasses, using the tiny camera in these glasses and a special user interface to generate a live sonic augmented reality overlay, hands-free! You may want to use an external battery connected via USB cable to keep the smart glasses battery from draining too quickly. You can help us by blogging and tweeting about your experiences, your use cases, and about how *you* learn to see with sound.
How does it work? The vOICe uses pitch for height and loudness for brightness in one-second left to right scans of any view: a rising bright line sounds as a rising tone, a bright spot as a beep, a bright filled rectangle as a noise burst, a vertical grid as a rhythm. Best used with stereo headphones for the most immersive experience and most detailed auditory resolution.
Just experiment with simple visual patterns first, because real-life imagery is extremely complex. Randomly drop a bright item such as a DUPLO brick on a dark table top, and learn to reach for it through sound alone (close your eyes if you have eyesight). Next try and explore your own safe home environment, and learn to associate the complex sound patterns with what you already know is there. Sighted users can also use the app with Google Cardboard compatible devices through a swipe-down on the main screen to toggle the binocular view.
For serious users: learning to see with sound is like learning a foreign language or learning to play a musical instrument, really challenging your perseverance and brain plasticity. It may well be the ultimate brain training system, bridging the senses through artificial synesthesia. A general training manual for The vOICe (not specific to the Android version) is available online at
http://www.seeingwithsound.com/manual/The_vOICe_Training_Manual.htm
Why is The vOICe free? Because our foremost goal is to make a real change by lowering barriers to use as much as we can. You will find that competing technologies cost upwards of $10,000 and yet have lower specs. The perceptual resolution offered by The vOICe is unmatched even by $100,000 "bionic eye" retinal implants (PLoS ONE 7(3): e33136).
The vOICe for Android supports English, Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Estonian, Hungarian, Polish, Slovak, Turkish, Russian, Chinese, Korean and Arabic (menu Options | Language).
Please report bugs to feedback@seeingwithsound.com, and visit the web page http://www.seeingwithsound.com/android.htm for detailed description and disclaimers. We are on Twitter at @seeingwithsound.
Thank you!
All Application Badges
Free
downl.
downl.
Android
4.0+
4.0+
Android app
App History & Updates
What's Changed
v2.15: Latest OCR result, barcode result and spoken photo label automatically copied to system clipboard. Contrast refinement. Continuous hi-res OCR option. Barcode detection.
v2.14: Experimental speech recognition labeling after taking photograph (headphones required) => labels logged in /vOICe/photolog.txt file.
v2.13: Added support for Eye-D Pro app. Added support for sharing images with The vOICe.
v2.15: Latest OCR result, barcode result and spoken photo label automatically copied to system clipboard. Contrast refinement. Continuous hi-res OCR option. Barcode detection.
v2.14: Experimental speech recognition labeling after taking photograph (headphones required) => labels logged in /vOICe/photolog.txt file.
v2.13: Added support for Eye-D Pro app. Added support for sharing images with The vOICe.
Version update The vOICe for Android was updated to version 2.15
Version update The vOICe for Android was updated to version 2.00
Version update The vOICe for Android was updated to version 1.89
Version update The vOICe for Android was updated to version 1.87
What are users saying about The vOICe for Android
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Can you please tell what algorithm you used for this , bcoz right now we are working on stereo vision to get exact data.
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I have been a user of the vOICe for several years. It is the only way to get vision without surgery. It has allowed me to see what I cannot touch such as the interaction of light and shadows on water, a rising Geyser in Iceland etc. I can also do other things like read the address of my house when I approach it, see where I am going and navigate a busy office. Many people have asked me how long does using the vOICe take to learn. The answer is that I am still learning. You can get usable results in about 15 minutes of training. I do not mean that you will begin to interpret complex soundscapes but you can learn to track the changes in sounds indicating that your environment has changed and if you use lights, you can track if they are on or off. That is handy if you are living with sighted people and also in reducing your electricity bill. The built-in OCR is an immediate win which is how I read my house number.
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Good
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Simply amazing. I'm not blind, but I can negotiate a bit with it on and my eyes closed. Just a great example of where technology is taking us.
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Use less
M
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I had some problem with using an external wifi camera from D-link with this app. I reported the same and I got it solved in a single day!! Nice app and nice people.
M
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This app needs a better, more easily understandable user interface. And also optimization, lots of it, because now it's a huge battery drainer.
M
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I need ar to have schedules on my bionic eye identical to terminator style glasses
R
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Lisa your blind so how did you know what you were typing?
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Ask pub be eek Jew ween I'd eek urea FL IQ aleichem puts ween pix new UK khz an ire TN nds RN All q rip all quip rep Oswell own lame whys Enrico wish emetic annatto haul nds en pox we're ween week ttyl UK I'll week week ttyl eel UK en en Jul eek pods urea IQ pods la
M
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Its ok I guess. Just wish it was like the one Apple can download
M
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Perfect
J
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Lisa your blind so how did you know what you were typing?
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Hi, I like the app very much !! ..... I have an idea developed this App , so I really would like to get the source code from you if possible!
W
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Amazing app!
S
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Does everything I expected to do plus more. I am going to enjoy having a different perspective.
M
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Asome
U
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YOU GET 555 stars !
U
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Great app! Feedback to the developer resulted in almost immediate patching, which alone already makes this app a top one! Four stars instead of five only because of the default settings which demonstrate extensively what this app is capable of, but which also make the interface appear crowded (which in turn may provide a steep learning curve for the visually impaired). Thank yóu, Peter!
M
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by M####:
See. with your ears. I'm blind glad to know someone is trying to make life for blind people better n my past its been really hard when u tell people u vision impaired they don't get it all they understand is u do see or u don't see at all if urban someone who sees very little sighted people just don't understand u at all the place where I use to live made me move customers to them I was a liability now I have a good and fair landlord for that I'm truly grateful I'm happy to see there is a light at the end
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Amazing and funny application.
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Really nice apps
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Good try
U
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I love this app
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Asome
J
by J####:
by J####:
Excellent app, excellent developer communication. This is a must-have app!
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This app is very nice, glad to have it for free Just wondering how sighted person will see using this app?
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Asome
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A Side by Side display mode that would make this compatible with Google Cardboard/other HMDs would make this app pure gold. The benefit would be the ability to see the 2D video field in your entire field of view. Though not 3D, you could still see how the colors translate into sounds. You could actually walk around wearing this application for extended periods of time. Coming from a VR enthusiast, this would be an incredible feature. Similar to how Gear VR has a camera feed of 2D video as your whole FOV.
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Asome
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How to use this app???war is its use...
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This has the potential to be a powerful and unbelievably useful tool for everyone, not just the blind, though the visually impaired could probably offer more help to improve upon it than many. I hope those who made this possible continue to improve on it. I would like to help too. Great job so far!!!
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I can't believe people comment without knowing anything or give bad ratings if they're too stupid to understand how to use it. Don't rate apps just to see your name there and say something. This app works, it does what it's supposed to and would greatly help a blind person if you knew how the brain adapts and how you can use echo location. It deserves full stars because of these things, not one because you don't understand what it's for or because you didn't read the description. Actually a useful app!
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Great app, but I wish it had a graphing calculator function similar to the Winblows version.
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So I am
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I don't understand what this does but its pretty freaky lol
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It's a fun toy. I wouldn't want to have to use it though if I were blind. The human brain adapts to blindness by improving hearing abilities, without the need for virtual reality.
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I dont get it.
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Not understand