Apple today announced new accessibility features that will be included in its physical devices (such as the iPhone and iPad) and operating system versions throughout 2022.
Innovations include: a door detection system for blind or low vision people and native audio transcription for those with hearing loss. See more details below.
port detection
With a system update, it will be possible to use an iPhone to detect the presence of a door and keep information about how far it is, if it opens further, while dragging or sliding. In addition, the device will be able to read symbols, numbers and warnings on that port.
The feature will be available in Apple’s built-in Application Magnifier that supports users who are blind or have low vision. Today the company already has the ability to trace people and image descriptions.
Devices compatible with the update will be those with LiDAR sensors, a branded proprietary scanner system, according to company, Newer models of iPhones and iPads have the technology.
Here’s how the new Accessibility feature should work:
Audio transcription and subtitles
Another accessibility feature released by Apple is the Live Caption audio transcription and subtitled playback system. With this, those who feel the need will be able to follow the content that includes sound across various devices in the Apple ecosystem.
Example: in a phone call, in Application While watching content on FaceTime video chat social media Or even streamed content to another nearby device.
Apple says the Live Actions feature will add Live Captions to FaceTime calls, whether in a direct call or group meeting. Google Offers similar solutions in its meeting service.
The company claims that the transcripts generated in Live Caption are done on the device, so user information is private and secure without passing through the cloud.
Live Caption will work iPhoneon iPad and Mac computers.
Check out the demo released by the company:
Other features that come throughout the year
- voice over: The brand also announced the expansion of VoiceOver languages. In addition, the device describes everything that happens on the device’s screen — it’s been working in Portuguese for some time now. So far, there are more than 20 languages - the new ones are Bengali, Bulgarian, Catalan, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.
- Buddy ControllerResources where the person can ask a health professional or friend to help them play the sport;
- Siri pause time: Users will be able to adjust the response time of Siri’s personal assistant before responding to a request;
- voice recognition: The feature can be customized to recognize specific sounds of the environment in which a person is, such as alarms, house bells or sounds emitted by appliances.
- Gestures on Apple Watch: Hand gestures can be used to control the Apple Watch, such as the double pinch gesture to answer or end a call, dismiss notifications, take a photo, play or pause media, the company explains.
