New Technology Helps Blind People Shop

A new technology has been developed to help blind people locate objects. (AFP)
A new technology has been developed to help blind people locate objects. (AFP)
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New Technology Helps Blind People Shop

A new technology has been developed to help blind people locate objects. (AFP)
A new technology has been developed to help blind people locate objects. (AFP)

Researchers at the US Caltech Institute have used augmented reality hardware and computer vision algorithms to create a new technique to guide those who have lost their vision.

The technique allows various objects found in a place to "talk" and inform the blind individual of their nature, reported the German news agency.

The new technology, dubbed CARA, utilizes different sounds to define each of the objects found in the room in order to avoid any confusion that may face the user. It also uses different sound levels to indicate the space between the user and the object. It defines the close objects with a loud sound, while it uses low sound for far objects.

CARA is worn as a portable headset, and translates the optical world into plain English audio.

The device could be used in banks, grocery stores, museums and other locations, to help blind people make their way through unfamiliar spaces.

The TechXplore website cited researcher Markus Meister, who said: "Imagine you are in a world where all the objects around you have voices and can speak to you. Wherever you point your gaze, the different objects you focus on are activated and speak their names to you.”

CARA is still in its early stages, but will benefit from the rapid development of algorithms for computer vision.

The researchers hope that places like banks, hotels and shopping malls will offer CARA devices for use by their blind customers.



Microsoft Halts China-based Tech Support for Pentagon Systems

FILE - The Microsoft company logo is displayed at their offices in Sydney, Australia, on Feb. 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)
FILE - The Microsoft company logo is displayed at their offices in Sydney, Australia, on Feb. 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)
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Microsoft Halts China-based Tech Support for Pentagon Systems

FILE - The Microsoft company logo is displayed at their offices in Sydney, Australia, on Feb. 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)
FILE - The Microsoft company logo is displayed at their offices in Sydney, Australia, on Feb. 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)

Microsoft said Friday it is making sure that personnel based in China are not providing technical support for US Defense Department systems, after investigative news site ProPublica revealed the practice earlier this week.

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth confirmed that work on Defense Department cloud services had been outsourced to people in China, insisting that the country will not have "any involvement whatsoever" with the department's systems going forward.

"Microsoft has made changes to our support for US Government customers to assure that no China-based engineering teams are providing technical assistance for DoD Government cloud and related services," the company's chief communications officer, Frank Shaw, said in a post on X.

ProPublica reported Tuesday that the tech giant was using engineers based in China -- Washington's primary military rival -- to maintain Pentagon computer systems, with only limited supervision by US personnel who often lacked the necessary expertise to do the job effectively.

US Senator Tom Cotton asked Hegseth to look into the matter in a letter dated Thursday, and the Pentagon chief responded that he would do so.

Hegseth then posted a video on X Friday evening in which he said "it turns out that some tech companies have been using cheap Chinese labor to assist with DoD cloud services. This is obviously unacceptable, especially in today's digital threat environment."

"At my direction, the department will... initiate -- as fast as we can -- a two-week review, or faster, to make sure that what we uncovered isn't happening anywhere else across the DoD," AFP quoted him as saying.

"We will continue to monitor and counter all threats to our military infrastructure and online networks," he added, thanking "all those Americans out there in the media and elsewhere who raised this issue to our attention so we could address it."