Head-To-Head: Comparing the Relative Merits of AudioLabels, Digit-Eyes Audio Scanner and Labeler, and LookTel Recognizer
Submitted by AppleVis on 16 May, 2012 - 06:57
In this podcast AnonyMouse gives his assessment of three iOS apps that aim to make it easier for the blind to identify everyday objects. The three apps are AudioLabels, Digit-Eyes Audio Scanner and Labeler, and LookTel Recognizer.
Having looked at each app individually in past podcasts, AnonyMouse now brings all three together to look at their relative merits and to decide if there is one clear winner.
Other apps mentioned in this podcast:
VizWiz
oMoby
Podcast File:
Comments
#1 Good Comparison
I'm not just saying that because I agree with your assessment.
My only quibble with the podcast is the comments on app pricing and value. Maybe I'm conditioned to paying a blind tax, but I find the independence these apps offer to be almost priceless. Okay, it's not priceless. I did not buy any dedicated hardware bill identifiers, or bar code scanners, mostly because of the high prices. But with this stuff coming in at such low prices, and knowing the limited market, I'm fine with paying 10, 20 or 30 bucks for an app I'll use every day. I want to encourage people to write great apps, and to continue supporting and developing them. I'd pay money for VizWiz and worry it's free status makes it a tenuous app in my arsenal. I get your point, but i wouldn't want people to get the idea some of these apps are over priced, or under featured. They all are amazing when you consider where we were just a few short years ago.
Thanks for a good survey of some great stuff.
#2 Priceless
Absolutely! I am 100% behind you and your thinking about these fantastic prices and what they can do for us! The technology is just mind blowing!
We all know that to get anything of a comparison in a device or hardware to do the same thing in these three applications can be so much more expensive than what we have today on our devices.
I respect these wonderful developers and I am so happy that we have choices. They have mouths to feed just like everyone else does. Personally, the prices are so affordable but now they have competition. So merely making suggestions to their apps just only in my thoughts would help them in making their apps that much more attractive to compete for our money.
I believe you should purchase what you think fits your needs.
Here we have are three wonderful apps that are so similar in one form or another. Each bring to the table something different. So my ideas was to compare those differences so you can make your decision easier to purchase.
In no way do I want my suggestion reflect in how you go about your purchasing of these awesome apps. However, because they are so similar I can't nor do I see why we need to buy all of them. It adds up quickly and I don't like to have redundant apps when another would suffice for my needs.
Thanks for the compliment and I will be doing more Head to Head comparison with other categories in future podcasts!
#3 Thanks for the podcast. I own
Thanks for the podcast. I own both recognizer and Digit-Eyes and like them both. I was interested to hear your perspective on them.
According to the Recognizer documentation, the duration of a recording can be up to 60 seconds, not as long as you wish.
Also, why do you think that recognizer and Digit-Eyes are using the same database to lok up product codes? I looked up an item today with both Recognizer and Digit-Eyes. Recognizer wasn't able to find it, while Digit-Eyes was successful. I suspect that Recognizer works better with US-products than it does with European ones. I don't use Recognizer regularly to look up product codes. However, when I tried it a few weeks ago, it wasn't very satisfying. So for someone not in the US who finds product codes important, I would suggest waiting or getting digit-eyes. I understand that LookTel is working to improve their database, so hopefully the barcode scanning feature will be more satisfying for European products soon, too.
Anyway, thank you for your podcast. I always find your podcasts very informative and very well done.
#4 Correction...
Interesting analysis and very well presented!
There is a factual error that merits note -- DigitEyes, LookTel and AudioLabels do not use the same database; that is actually one of the big differences between the products from the viewpoint of quality of information.
AudioLabels states that they use a combination of Google Shopping data and upcdatabase.com. I believe they are converting the latter to upcData.info. The data in Google is going to reflect the items currently for sale; that in the other two database is is groupsourced and will have all the common quality problems that are expected with that sort of data.
LookTel, I believe, is using the database that is used by DirectionsForMe. This is a small-ish, but very good quality commercial database that contains items with US codes.
DigitEyes has a proprietary database that is much larger and richer than any of those database (by at least an order of magnitude - the other two databases total about 2 million records and Digit-Eyes has about 26 million. The Digit-Eyes database is multilingual and consists largely of products outside the US (about 4 million are US records.) Like the LookTel data, our information is curated and checked for accuracy.
The net result is that people who use Digit-Eyes -- particularly those in other countries -- are much more likely to find that their UPC and EAN codes are recognized.
If you prefer the visual recognizer approach, this does not matter a bit (of course!), but if you want the detailed data, the data source may make a difference.
#5 Correction
Nancy,
Thank you ever so much for making that clarification. Yes, indeed that was a major error on my part. I'll be honest I was fed bad information on this. I apologize for that!
That is a major plus for the UPC database being more robust and would be very useful for those outside of the states.
However, that still solidify my stance on that I thought the $9.99 package for the UPC was something I highly suggest along with the Looktel Recognizer.
So again Thank You ever so much for your hard work and your wonderful product. Most of all I really love when the developers take their time to visit AppleVis to listen to our voices. That means a lot to us!
So keep up the great work! :)
#6 Given that a basic assumption
Given that a basic assumption that underlies the review isn't correct, are you planning on changing the recording?
It seems that responsible journalism might require it....
#7 Podcast updated
Nancy, the podcast has been updated to remove AnonyMouse's comment that he thought all three apps used the same barcode database.
#8 Sweet -- thanks very much!
Sweet -- thanks very much!