by Nancy Weirh | Technology
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| * A blind facebook user seems to show his excitement at the news. (Credit: via Wiki) |
Facebook is caring. The social network wants to ensure everyone can be part of the community of virtual friendship that is sweeping our universe and it is taking steps to show it every day.
From it's idea of `internet of things', aiming to reduce barriers to communication and interaction by connecting global communities to its most recent scheme - using the best available artificial intelligence to help everyone be part of and enjoy it.
According to CNET, studies have shown that blind people often feel excluded or even isolated on social media when they're unable to fully join in on discussions around visual media. Now a new feature from Facebook hopes to fix that.
Facebook is expanding out its accessibility features with automatic alternative text which describes what's in an image. It is being provided via new object recognition technology that the social network has been working on for months.
In the early days of the internet, the alternative text tag (or alt text tag) was an important part of putting your webpage together.
"The alt-text is what shows up when images broke or failed to load thanks to slow dial-up speed or if people were using a text-based web browser.", CNET writes
From it's idea of `internet of things', aiming to reduce barriers to communication and interaction by connecting global communities to its most recent scheme - using the best available artificial intelligence to help everyone be part of and enjoy it.
According to CNET, studies have shown that blind people often feel excluded or even isolated on social media when they're unable to fully join in on discussions around visual media. Now a new feature from Facebook hopes to fix that.
Facebook is expanding out its accessibility features with automatic alternative text which describes what's in an image. It is being provided via new object recognition technology that the social network has been working on for months.
In the early days of the internet, the alternative text tag (or alt text tag) was an important part of putting your webpage together.
"The alt-text is what shows up when images broke or failed to load thanks to slow dial-up speed or if people were using a text-based web browser.", CNET writes
But these days, though seemingly largely forgotten, the Alt Text is being reactivated by Facebook to put together a highly sophisticated system for object recognition in images.
So blind or visually impaired users who access Facebook via screen readers, devices or programs that give an audio description of what's happening on a screen will get short descriptions of the images people are posting, and join in to express their own feelings.
Syntax that describe images include words such as "food, pizza" or as complex as "two people, smiling, sunglasses, outdoor, sky, water". All descriptions come with the short caveat "image may contain".
On Tuesday, Facebook published a video on YouTube explaining the new feature: We just launched a tool that uses artificial intelligence to help people who are blind experience photos on Facebook.
When blind or visually impaired people use the internet, they use something called a screen reader that turns text into spoken words. But until now, screen readers haven't been able to describe what's in a photo.
Using artificial intelligence, we're able to understand what's in a photo and describe that for someone using words. 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."
On Tuesday, Facebook published a video on YouTube explaining the new feature: We just launched a tool that uses artificial intelligence to help people who are blind experience photos on Facebook.
When blind or visually impaired people use the internet, they use something called a screen reader that turns text into spoken words. But until now, screen readers haven't been able to describe what's in a photo.
Using artificial intelligence, we're able to understand what's in a photo and describe that for someone using words. 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."
Now, more reasons why Mark Zuckerberg rejoiced with Good DeepMind during its recent world domination during an AI context in South Korea.
Check out this video to see how it works.
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