We applied for a Karten Grant many years ago and bought a lot of VI Technology, including the OrCam My Eye which is still in use now. The OrCam My Eye is now on version 3 Pro and there is an OrCam Read 3 also and it is, pretty much, all singing and all dancing. It advertises itself as the “most advanced vision impairment wearable solution”. It reads or magnifies text, recognises faces, identifies products and you can ask it questions and get information.
Our original OrCam My Eye mainly reads text, but at the time it had the real “wow” factor. The OrCam is a device that attaches by magnet to glasses. The wearer can then point at text either nearby (book level) or at a poster / train timetable at a distance. The gadget then takes a photo of the text and reads it to the wearer. It takes a bit of getting used to because you have to have your head in the right position and your pointer finger in the right place, but once you get the hang of it then you can use it in so many different places and to read a range of text, close up and further away.
My student (KM) who used the OrCam a lot took it on his Animal Care course to read his handouts and what was on the board. Most memorably, he took it on a trip to a museum and art gallery to read the small printed information and when he adjusted his headphones he flipped the camera bit onto the floor and didn’t realise. Some time later he went to use it and realised that it wasn’t attached to his glasses. A frantic search occurred and, fortunately, he did eventually find it on the floor.
This is probably the weakest aspect of the OrCam My Eye – the magnet is light, as is the camera part, and it is easy to knock off and not realise, and it’s easy to forget that it is attached to your glasses. I hope that this is something OrCam have been able to improve, so that the magnet is stronger.
KM has now purchased his own My Eye Pro and this is what he has said:
I attended the College in 2018-19. Whilst I was there, I got introduced to the OrCam My Eye. When I first used the OrCam I was amazed at what it can do and how helpful it can be. I was impressed at how easy it is to use and that you don’t notice that it is there. The best thing about the OrCam is that you can take it anywhere and use it in any situation where reading is necessary. I now have an OrCam MyEye Pro. It is very helpful because it does a lot more than reading such as face recognition and scanning barcodes and telling me what the product is. I will always be grateful to the College for introducing me to this amazing piece of technology.
Another student (AB) has also tried out the OrCam and has since purchased his own. He uses this in College a lot and his tutor has said:
AB has been successful at using the OrCam in a variety of ways. This has included using the barcode function to identify which items to give customers when working as a cashier in our café Enterprise. AB has programmed in a range of faces into the OrCam and used the facial recognition function. He has also read a range of documents using its reading function and its speech output. This last way is his preferred way of working out of all the ways that he has tried. It enables him to access the same documents as his sighted peers and at the same pace.
The beauty of the OrCam is that it isn’t just for people with sight loss, but can also help people with Dyslexia, Irlens Syndrome and other reading difficulties. The OrCam Read is different to the My Eye as it is hand held or can be placed on a stand and it will read printed or digital text aloud from screens, books, newspapers, signs etc. The device also has a magnifier that can be used to upload and capture books, handwritten documents and images. Apart from that, the OrCam Read has an AI Assistant that you can ask questions about the text and other topics and it is interactive.
There is also the handheld OrCam Learn which reads text, and when in Reading Pal mode gives live feedback to students practicing reading aloud and can assess understanding by asking relevant questions. It will also read signs and text when the person is out and about. The OrCam Learn can be used in exams when in exam mode and with Wi-Fi disabled. This option is a lot more affordable than the other options.
So, although we were given the OrCam My Eye many years ago through the Karten Grant the impact continues to this day, with students and former students continuing to use this technology because they learned about it at College. Definitely a gift that keeps on giving.
Sadly, OrCam have announced that they will no longer be focusing on developing products for people with sight loss but will be concentrating on their OrCam Hear products for people with hearing loss. I am sure that this product will be as good as their other products for people with sight loss or reading difficulties. However, even though there will be a change of direction for OrCam, I hope that we will still be able to buy Read 3 or Learn, because we have a number of students who would, definitely, benefit from one or both of these gadgets.
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- This article was written by the Sense College Loughborough Karten Centre
- Featured in the Karten Autumn 2024 Newsletter
- This article is listed in the following subject areas: Centre News