Garrett Swan Receives 11th Annual Envision-Atwell Award for Low Vision Research
At a May 1 gathering of the Low Vision Research Group held during the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), Garrett Swan, a post-doctoral research fellow at the Schepens Eye Research Institute of Massachusetts Eye and Ear in Boston, received the 11th annual Envision-Atwell Award for outstanding efforts in low vision research. Swan studied the different ways in which individuals with complete hemianopic field loss scan on their blind and seeing sides to detect potential hazards. His findings could help improve training in compensatory strategies for vision loss and suggest improvements to assistive technologies. Named in honor of long-time low vision research supporter Constance Atwell and consisting of a $1,000 stipend and a trophy, the Envision-Atwell Award recognizes an ARVO presenter who is currently a student, post-doctoral researcher, or junior faculty member and earned his or her most recent professional degree within the past five years. Swan’s abstract, “Predicting early hazard detection from head scanning magnitude in individuals with hemianopia,” described a study in which, by tracking both eye and head movements as subjects with complete hemianopic field loss (HFL) drove along virtual routes using a high-fidelity driving simulator, he determined the different ways in which such individuals scan on their blind and seeing sides to detect potential hazards. His findings could help improve training in compensatory strategies for vision loss and suggest improvements to assistive technologies. To learn more about Envision and the award, visit the Envision website.
NV Access, Creators of the NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA) Screen Reader, Requests User Feedback
NV Access has created a brief satisfaction survey for users. The company seeks feedback on what they are doing well and areas where they could improve. The survey is three questions long. To learn more about the NVDA screen reader, visit the NV Access website.
Developers of Image Recognition App TapTapSee produce Advanced Image Recognition API for Developers
The developers of the popular TapTapSee image recognition app have created a more advanced image recognition application programming interface (API) available to third party developers. Based on the numerous images recognized by the TapTapSee app, the company has been able to significantly increase the accuracy of the image recognition. For example, when recognizing a book, the system can recognize the author and title. When recognizing a watch, the system was also able to determine brand and style.
This system could be invaluable to people with visual impairments but also can be helpful to the mainstream technology industry in applications like automatically detecting inappropriate content. The company also notes that the system can recognize videos that may pave the way for automatically generated audio description in the future. To learn more, visit the CloudSight AI site.
