TapTapSee - Blind & Visually Impaired Camera for iOS

The iPhone and iPad are both intuitive devices that offer a range of options for people of all walks of life, including those with impairments of sight. One such app is Tap Tap See, which uses the built-in accessibility functions of iOS 6 to activate a remote network that can rapidly identify and announce objects using the device's built-in camera. Native for the iPhone (but perfectly functional upscaled to an iPad), Tap Tap See is a marvelous app that does one very basic thing very well.

Before you use Tap Tap See, you'll need to turn on the Voiceover function located in the System menu under Accessibility. Once you've activated the function, turn on Tap Tap See, and it will function as a guide for the vision impaired. It's very simple in execution. Point the camera of the phone at an object and double tap the screen. It will register the image, upload the image to the developer's servers and then speak back to you whatever it finds. We found the item and text recognition software surprisingly adept, accurately identifying not only objects at hand but the brands and style of those items - from computers and monitors to books and tennis shoes. The only issue we found was the relative slowness in response. Each double tap requires between 3 and 6 seconds to register and return results.

Regardless of speed, however, this is a vey powerful, very useful app. Providing an added level of detail and information for the vision impaired, it allows quick and easy interaction with the environment from directly within an already intuitive interface. If you or someone you care for is blind or vision impaired, this is an app worth checking out - even if just for a fun tool to have while at home.