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"MySmartEye, a new initiative by Singapore\u2019s local telecommunications company StarHub and developed by TribalDDB, is a mobile application that enables the visually impaired to be aware of their surroundings.\nThrough the app, the visually impaired will be able to take a picture and have it described via the built-in voice-over feature of their smartphones.\nIn order to describe the pictures, the app employs a micro-volunteering, or virtual-volunteering, program.\nWhen a visually impaired user snaps a photo, it is automatically sent to the micro-volunteers\u2019 smartphone, where the volunteer is then prompted to describe the image. The speed of the message transmission back to the visually impaired user depends on the volunteer's response time. The app also allows the visually impaired user to check feedback on his or her image using motion and gesture prompts.\nTo use MySmartEye, all micro-volunteers have to log in through their Facebook account, helping to ensure credibility and responsibility of the comments given. In addition, comments and descriptions from micro-volunteers are kept authentic via a rating system to encourage people to provide more descriptive and vivid details of the picture.\nOne visually impaired user said the app allows him to feel more socially connected with the world. He said MySmartEye allows him to actually engage with real people, instead of listening to automated responses from image-recognition technology-driven apps which he previously tried.\nThere are about 200 micro-volunteers assisting on the platform to date, and the current app has been adopted by about 3,000 clients from the Singapore Association of the Visually Handicapped and the Singapore Association for the Deaf.\nStarHub also concurrently launched an exclusive SmartBuddy plan which features value-added data, SMS and talktime bundle \u2014 much more than usual mobile plans \u2014 with subsidized mobile handset prices.\nMySmartEye is available worldwide and can be downloaded from the Apple App Store and Google Play.\nImage: Flickr, Takashi Hososhima"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/08/27/mysmarteye/>