From the BBC:
“The codes helping
visually-impaired people shop”
(Coco Pops was used in the trial
and Special K will follow in January as part of a general rollout)
A new, colourful kind of barcode
technology, developed by a Spanish firm, is being adopted for the first time in
food packaging in the UK. It aims to help blind and partially-sighted people
identify products in shops, and access health and safety information about
food. "I generally don't go shopping anymore because I can't do it without
any kind of help," explains Beth Fowler, who is 19 years-old.
"Because I can't see, practically… most things." She is a pupil at St
Vincent's School in Liverpool, a specialist school for people with sensory
impairment. "Shopping in supermarkets is a complete and utter pain,"
adds Marcia Shaw, 20, a recent graduate from the school, who is sight-impaired
too. The store layouts keep changing, and you have to get help from assistants
to find what you need, she explains. But new technology is being rolled out
that may help provide a solution to some of these problems. The school has been
taking part in a trial with cereal manufacturer Kellogg's. The company has been
testing out colourful barcodes on its packaging that mobile phone cameras can
easily pick up using an app.
Normal barcodes, or QR codes, can
be challenging for blind and partially-sighted people, because it takes a lot
of dexterity to focus and frame them correctly, at close range, on a phone's
camera. These colourful ones can be detected at a distance of up to three
metres, and in low-light conditions. The technology is developed by a company
from Murcia, Spain called NaviLens. Its codes are already in use in Spain across
public transport networks and museums. The New York City Subway system also
uses it. Heathrow Airport in London began a trial, but this was postponed due
to the pandemic. All Kellogg's cereal packets will eventually display the code,
starting with Special K cereal in January. "With the new app I can just
pick the food off the shelf and scan it," explains Beth, "and read
all the information, like ingredients, for example. Everything that a sighted
person could see is made accessible." Many pupils at St Vincent's School
also have food allergies, explains Dianne Waites, who teaches Braille and
assistive technology at the school, so this technology is even more vital for
them.
Braille is a universal language
that relies on physical touch, text is read by running your fingers over
indentations on a surface. These indentations can be embossed on to food
packaging, but take up a lot of space to convey limited information. Only
around 10% of blind and visually impaired people actually use Braille,
according to the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB). All medicines
in the UK must have the name of the medicine displayed in Braille on the
labelling, and patient information leaflets must be available to the blind and
partially sighted. But at the moment the vast majority of food products don't
have Braille on their packaging, and there is no legal or regulatory
requirement for them to include it. Because the NaviLens digital codes trigger
audio notes, the amount of information that can be conveyed is potentially
limitless. In addition to allergy warnings - like traces of nuts and the
presence of gluten - the full range of information about ingredients, like fat
and glucose composition, for example, can also be offered. This kind of
information can already be accessed across all products if you are shopping
online - however when you are choosing products in a physical shop on the High
Street, it's a different matter - customers also want to access the information
at home when cooking.
(The NaviLens codes are already
in use on the New York metro system)
There are a few other
technologies already on the market aiming to address similar problems. Google's
Lookout app uses Artificial Intelligence to identify products through image
recognition. This means no barcode or similar marker is necessary on the product
packaging itself, but results are not perfect. Meanwhile, Supersense, developed
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is an app that reads out in
a computer voice any text that you hover the camera over, and it can also read
standard barcodes on food packages. And Be My Eyes allows users to call
volunteers for assistance, who can describe in real time what they see in front
of them on a video call. In 2018, Procter & Gamble introduced tactile
markings on its Herbal Essences products so that people can distinguish between
shampoo and conditioner. Sure deodorants, manufactured by Unilever, introduced
Braille labelling this year.
Breakfast-only solution However,
with a proliferation of technologies companies may choose to invest in very different
solutions, meaning a confused picture for consumers. So, for now, those who
download the NaviLens app will find it only helps them fill a small but
important part of their shopping basket - breakfast. The RNIB surveyed
its members and found that more than 95% want more assistive technology on
products that can be accessed through phones. "I describe my mobile
phone as my Swiss Army Knife," explains Marc Powell, strategic
accessibility lead for the RNIB, who is registered blind. He says his
phone allows him to access all kinds of information which he struggled to get
hold of before, from bus timetables to courier delivery arrival times. "There
hasn't been technology available before that provides this amount of
information all at once," he says.
"Standards need to start to change, we all have equal rights to
access information, to independence. Technology is playing its part in making
that happen." Beth at St Vincent's school agrees it would make a
really big difference to her life if the technology was adopted more widely.
"If we put accessible labels on bleach and medication, why shouldn't
they be on food?" she says. "They can't put Braille on everything,
but with these barcodes, it shouldn't be a massively difficult thing."
^ This sounds like a really good
way for the Blind and Hard-Of-Sight to be more independent (in grocery stores,
pharmacies, the Subway, etc.) and that is the main thing that is needed – more independence.
^
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