New Facebook tool describes photos to blind

By Barry Eitel

SAN FRANCISCO

Facebook launched a new tool Tuesday that uses artificial intelligence to help the blind experience photos, an advance that goes far beyond previous technology for the visually impaired.

For years, the blind have used the Internet via a feature known as a screen reader that reads aloud text of an article, message, social media post or other written content online.

Screen readers, however, have never been able to replicate the experience of seeing a photograph.

Some could name individuals in a picture using facial recognition software but the programming could not actually describe an image.

Facebook’s new tool, called automatic alternative text, uses artificial intelligence (AI) to recognize what it is in a photograph, then verbalize the information for the user.

“Using artificial intelligence, we're able to understand what's in a photo and describe that for someone using words,” Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post.

“This is a great use of AI technology, and it's an important step towards making sure everyone has equal access to information and is included in the conversation.”

Automatic alternative text could analyze a photograph and then tell the user a statement such as, “Image may contain three people, smiling, outdoors,” Facebook said.

“This is possible because of Facebook’s object recognition technology, which is based on a neural network that has billions of parameters and is trained with millions of examples,”

Facebook engineers Shaomei Wu, Hermes Pique and Jeffrey Wieland wrote in an official blog post. “Each advancement in object recognition technology means that the Facebook Accessibility team will be able to make technology even more accessible for more people.”

Approximately 39 million people across the globe are blind, according to data from the World Health Organization. Earlier this year, Facebook claimed 1.59 billion people use the service.

In announcing the new technology, the company said 2 billion photos are shared across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp, all services owned by Facebook.