What does OrCam MyEye do? In practice I hear many patients complaints. The largest by far is reading text. OrCam is able to read text off of any surface (books, newspapers, mail, boxes and computer screens) through its own optical character recognition (OCR) software. My pa- tients can read on the go, home or at work. I’ve had patients use MyEye 2 to read the cooking instructions on a box or just find out the nutrient contents of food products while shopping, It can instantly read anywhere you are, a menu at a restaurant or that document you get while at a work meeting. OrCam is also able to perform recognition of faces, products, bar codes, colors, money and tells me the time. How Does OrCam MyEye Work? While wearing OrCam, the camera takes a photo and speaks the information it sees. While functions can be set to automatic, for reading most people like to have control of when the device is working. To activate the OrCam camera to take a picture of the text you want to read, all that’s needed is to point toward the text. This pointing gesture (pointing forward with the finger in an upward position, like gesturing the number 1, so the camera sees your nail), triggers the camera to take a picture once it sees your extended finger. If I want to read a book or any other text in front of me, I just point my finger at the text, listen for an audio feedback beep sound (indicating that the device recognized the gesture), remove my finger, at which time I will hear a camera shutter sound indicating a picture is being taken. Once the pic- ture has been taken, OrCam will start reading. Two other ways to initiate reading include tapping on the touch pad surface or as mentioned before can be automatic. Besides the pointing ges- ture, other gestures include stop and tell-time. While reading I can also fast forward or rewind the text by a forward or reverse swipe motion on the touch pad. I can also pause reading with a double tap and stop with a single tap. Depending on the func- tion I want, I can also change the settings to my preference ei- ther through an audio menu guide or through voice activation or OrCam’s App. Another reading capability is OrCam’s smart OCR function through touch reading. By keeping my finger in the camera’s field of view, instead of removing my finger, it knows to read about three lines above where I am pointing and will follow my finger around a page. This can be helpful with a menu or news- paper headlines and if I found that I want to read more of that section, all I need to do is remove my finger and OrCam will con- tinue reading on, smart! In OrCam’s original design, the device was light dependent. With the release of MyEye 2, which now features 2 LED lights, lighting conditions are a thing of the past. So if I am in a dark restaurant, the LED lights will automatically flash allowing me to read the menu with ease. However, one thing to point out is that if lighting is so low that the camera cannot see the pointing gesture, you would need to use the touch pad.
helping with collision detection and safe driving practices. It is now available in many vehicles worldwide making our roads saf- er, reducing accidents and really saving lives. Mobileye technol- ogy is also now being incorporated for use with self-driving cars, truly amazing! Founded in 2010, OrCam Technologies put together a team of leading engineers and design experts and really came up with a unique device and design. Over the past six years, since OrCam’s pre-testing phase in 2013 and launch of their original device in 2015 and now their 2nd generation device, MyEye 2 launched in 2018, I have worked with hundreds of patients using MyEye and have become quite familiar with its functionality. OrCam MyEye Description The OrCam MyEye 2 is a single lightweight unit (less than one ounce), which is about the size of an index finger. With two mag- nets on the inside surface the device attaches magnetically to most any eyeglasses (except for thin wire frames or some wrap around frame), so there is no need for any special kind of glasses. If you don’t wear glasses, it can attach to sunglasses or any frame without prescription. The device has an outer touch control pad, a 13 mega-pixel camera, 2 LED lights, a built in speaker and a mini USB port for charging. On the inside are the computer com- ponents and a rechargeable battery (lasting around 1.5 hours of continuous use). It has the capability of connecting to blue tooth speakers or headphone and is not dependent on the In- ternet for use. So the MyEye can be used when and anywhere I want. It however does connect to Wi-Fi for updates when con- nected. I have had patients using OrCam in the park, in stores and many other places where Wi-Fi may not be accessible or available.
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