Everyone has a routine to their day, from pulling out ingredients to cook a meal, sorting through their mail, or perusing through documents. To help people who are blind or low-vision complete these daily tasks faster and more easily, Google is introducing updates to its Lookout app on Android: new modes, a more accessible design, and expansion to even more Android devices.
Lookout now has two new modes: Food Label and Scan Document. With Food Label, consumers can quickly identify packaged foods by pointing their phone’s camera at the label. Lookout will guide consumers to position the food product so that it can be properly identified through its packaging or barcode. This can be particularly helpful when shoppers are putting away groceries and want to make sure you’re handling the right items that might feel the same to your touch. For example, Food Label would be able to distinguish between a can of corn and a can of green beans.
Use Food Label to identify different food products.
Based on feedback from the blind and low-vision community, Google are introducing an accessible design that is even more compatible with TalkBack, our Android screen reader. This includes making more space for the camera view, which makes it easier to frame the object that shoppers want more information about. In addition, we’ve changed navigation between modes to require fewer taps and less time by making it possible to scroll between them at the bottom of the screen.
With this update, Lookout will be available on all devices with more than 2GB of RAM running Android 6.0 and later. Lookout also now works in French, Italian, German and Spanish. Expanding this app to more people and devices is part of its commitment to make the world's information universally accessible and to build helpful products with and for people with disabilities.
