[duckson]

> Different responses to different touch and gestures, oriented towards the blind

That's VoiceOver on iOS. It's a screen reader that's also available on the Mac, iPad, and Apple Watch. Android has a similar screenreader called TalkBack.

I work with visually impaired people on accessible apps, and the large majority of them prefer Apple's devices because they have more advanced accessibility features.

[fullstop]

VoiceOver for the iOS camera is on another level entirely.

[domano]

What does it do? I dont have an iPhone to test it.

[hundchenkatze]

> When you use Camera, VoiceOver describes objects in the viewfinder. To take a photo or start, pause, or resume a video recording, double-tap the screen with two fingers.

https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/use-voiceover-in-apps...

[fullstop]

It describes the scene, tells you how many faces are visible, whether or not the image is focused, lighting conditions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CAafjodkyE

They can also generate alt text for photos which do not have that information already. Here's a video of the person in the original article describing this feature:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLBJUHkLTTA

[brantonb]

Here’s a post on the topic from a couple of weeks ago:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27153244

[nicoburns]

I'm guessing it actually describes the content of the scene the camera is pointing at.

[duskwuff]

It does! It goes beyond simply enumerating objects and can describe their properties or context as well -- for example, it'll describe a husky as "a black and white dog lying on a wooden floor", or a soft drink as "a transparent cup with brown liquid in it".

VoiceOver also works with another accessibility tool called Magnifier, allowing it to be used as a general "what am I looking at" tool.