Description of App
Aira is a visual information service that has been specially designed for people who are blind or low vision. Through augmented reality and artificial intelligence, Aira instantly connects you to a highly-trained, sighted agent that’s dedicated to enhancing your everyday experience.
–– Key Features ––
- Can be used on just your phone, or for an enhanced hands-free experience, use the app with a pair of Aira Smart Glasses
- Connect to an Aira Agent in under 10 seconds
- Achieve enhanced efficiency for completing tasks with access to visual information
- Sign up as a Guest to use the service in specific Aira Access locations such as partner airports or venues
- A range of plans to choose from: choose the one that’s right for your lifestyle
- Plans include cost of data, equipment, equipment insurance, and your monthly minute package
- Organize and locate rides easily by linking your Uber / Lyft accounts to your Aira account
- Access free minutes in a growing network of locations around the country (and soon the world)
- Join a supportive and inspiring community of Aira Explorers
–– Aira at home ––
Sort mail and medications
Color match clothes
Read mom's recipe
Interpret Captcha code
Manage computer tasks
Separate laundry
Read to a child
–– Aira at school ––
Roam the campus
Locate a stadium seat
Lay out an outfit
Select cafeteria items
Read a whiteboard
Read inaccessible print handouts
Find a vacant library cubicle
–– Aira at work ––
Locate the elevator
Navigate the site
Interpret presentation slides
Operate office equipment
Find an office or cubicle
Sort mail and papers
–– Aira on the go ––
Explore your city
Go for a hike
Enjoy the park or zoo
Travel with confidence
Find available gym equipment
Roam historic sites
Check out a museum
–– Questions? ––
Ready to explore but need to know more? Connect with us and start the conversation today.
Phone: +1 800 835 1934
Web: aira.io
–– Thank you ––
To ensure the best service possible, we’re always updating the Aira app with new features and functionality, so make sure you’re running the latest version.
Comments
Everybody Has a Choice
It’s very simple…it’s called choice. You can choose to purchase Aira or choose to not purchase Aira. If you would like to offer constructive criticism then please go ahead and do so. The bad mouthing of a product is completely unnecessary on this forum. It does not add value for people that come to this site for information.
I wasn't bad mouthing the
I wasn't bad mouthing the product as you put it, I was expressing skepticism yes but I would like to try it, though I do think even for the minimum plan you have to have a lot of disposable income, as lets say you get the 30 minute plan that would effectively be like your call costing you $1 a minute. as to time magazine saying about how aira is one of the top inventions in 2018 sure you can't buy that coverage, but the press does have a habit of finding out about inventions in the blind world and jumping on them because usually they don't know about alternatives or think they are the first of there kind when they are not. I am sure people find the service useful but I don't plan to try to invent reasons round the house to need it. I do totally get the point about having sighted help on demand though. as I say I do plan to try it but I am in no hurry that's all.
So you're basically saying,
So you're basically saying, that if I want to watch about one movie in a month with audio description and use aira agent to describe it to me, I should be living in sheltered accommodation?
Or if I want to go for a tour in a museum and use aira to describe me the exhibition?
Or go to a different meeting every day?
Or ask aira to monitor my presentation and let me know how the audience reacts
or....
Seriously...
Not at all, they are all
Not at all, they are all certainly use cases, though dvds mostly have audio description these days, and for me personally I see no value in going round a museum where its all stuff in cases or just pictures, as I find for me personally never having had sight it doesn't matter how well something is described if its in a case and not touchable I see little value in having it described, as lets be honest your not really building an accurate picture of something yourself your absorbing someone elses impression of the visual world. But I do recognize that everyones use cases will be different, my main point is I struggle to see why someone who is very independent would need 300, 400 or more aira minutes that was my main point.
actually I did think of a case where it could be of use something like a social situation such as a party, I am imagining being able to upload pictures of your friends to aira and asking agents to help you locate them within a crowd, as of course electronic methods of finding friends through find my friends on ios will only get you to a rough location. So I am not closed to it being potentially useful, it just has a very high price point. and I resent the idea that you can lose minutes if you don't use them all by the end of a month. I get that your not tied into a fixed contract but I think being able to prepay for a number of minutes to spend as and when a user sees fit should be made possible, but I guess aira relies on a constant monthly stream of income so it wouldn't be in there interests to offer this, I get if your a heavy user paying per month is probably better, but for someone who uses it occasionally even if they spend on the minimum plan for a month then don't use it much during that month that is still a significant amount of money that could be lost at the end of a given month.
It would certainly make me more likely to sign up to aira before I can get to an aira access location if I could pay for minutes then spend them as I see fit. Maybe they could introduce rules where OK you don't have to spend prepaid minutes over a full month but they could expire after two or three months if unused, or you could donate them to someone else, or again just throwing ideas out there, perhaps they could have a central pool of unused minutes and people could be allowed to dip into that pool and get 10 or 15 minutes for free from it in a month.
I was using it for
I was using it to walk 4-5 miles from one place to another. I figured better to pay $329 for an unlimitted pool of minutes, and walk everywhere, rather than just uber. Ubers add up, walking is free after the $329, and you can basically go unlimitted distances if you're willing to...
Aira
Aira FTW
Aira
I’m another Aira explorer as mentioned in the AppStore description you can use it to help navigating your environment read help you format resumes that kind of assistance can be provided if your doing job related tasks available to explorers their are other access offers as well
Mobility
I too used it for mobility as well
I wish it was available in South Africa.
Hi. I am from South Africa. I am going to be attending a mainstream school soon. This app would be extremely handy for that. Unfortunately, both the app and service are not available here. I’m sure Internet service providers such as Vodacom, MTN or Sell c might be willing to partner with this app. Can you please investigate and see if this would be possible?
Hello, email support@aira.io
Hello, email support@aira.io and discuss with them that option.. I dunno if it will happen right away, but good luck.
Unlimited plan
I could see the reason why Aira took away the unlimited plan was because people were calling the agents repeatedly asking you tell me what you can see? Aira than took away that plan
Actually it was not because
Actually it was not because of that.
Basically people were sharing the unlimited plan and using about 3000 minutes a month and they were losign money. I still ask aira to discribe stuff if I have the minutes, used it to describe a party I was at and I felt so impowered.
App entry should be updated
The app description does not currently reflect the free five minutes that everyone gets, nor does it mention all the new offers related to job searching, QuickBooks, and freedom scientific products.
Additionally, we now have the referral program, as well as a massively expanded list of major access locations.
I am not asking for a list of all of them, but maybe some examples of what could be expected, major airports and museums for instants, could be helpful.
also well worth mentioning is the team viewer integration for PC and mobile, Which opens up an entirely new avenue of assistance.
I believe these are very important points that should be communicated to everyone interested in this app.
clarifying that one does not need to have a hotspot or glasses to use the app now is also vital in my opinion, And I think the price should be changed to free with in app purchases.
App entry
I agree
Bricked
News is abuzz that certain glasses are going to be bricked on 3/31.
For those who are bashing…
For those who are bashing aira about the free offer changes, you got to understand that aira is a business and businesses have to adjust accordingly especially times like these. A lot of people were also abusing the free offer and I think they eventually caught on. I am still happy with the service.
my views on aira have now completely changed
Hi all, well I thought I would come on to let everyone know that my views on aira have completely changed.
when I expressed certain opinions on aira a few years ago this was before I had left home and moved into work. Now that I have relocated to an environment where I got very limited rehabilitation services and had to be quite self reliant I have truly found the benefits of having aira and am a complete convert to use of the service.
In fact I would like to publicly apologize to anyone who I disagreed with in the past on the value of aira and who might have been offended by my uninformed views. I hadn't had the real need to use it before and I think really it is a case of needing to use it and integrate it into your life which previously I hadn't done due to not having left home at that point.
Actually since moving to London I have definitely found it worthwhile to be on the advanced plan, and I can honestly say without aira I don't think I would have adapted to life in London as well as I have done especially when it comes to navigating and going to different places.
I wish I could remove my previously held views from this entry as they really don't reflect my current experiences or opinion of the service, but I suspect as people have made comments on them it wouldn't be practical to go through and remove my views and comments relating to them.
But I can honestly say I can't recommend aira highly enough to people. I mostly use it for navigation but have also used it with a few shopping tasks and to get recipes transcribed.
You really should contact…
You really should contact support, there is nothing we can do to help you on here, really a 5s is a quite old phone though. Support is your best option rather than talking to us as they can look at your account properly.
I missed this
This is now in the UK. Now doesn't use glasses and is free for the first 5 minutes every day.
It's basically just Be My Eyes now, for five minutes a day. I miss the glasses, but it still seems very expensive to me, so five minutes a day for nothing seems great.
Be My Eyes told me I was a "power user" once, but I've fallen out of love with it in the past couple of years - it started being difficult to get through to someone and it droped out all the time! I did find it a godsend for a while though, a few years ago.
No, it doesn't have the glasses anymore
It's just exactly like Be My Eyes, accept the person you get thrugh to is bieng paid to help you. BME used volunteers - they had way more than they could use by the way.
Remember something else
In the U.S. here, but remember that Be My Eyes volunteers were just that. I'm sorry but if i need a bank transaction taken care of, or even say reading a pregnancy test, you can be damn sure i'll use someone who has signed a NDA. Sorry for the odd examples, just wanted to put that out there. I have, now must get coffee.
The difference is that the AIRA agents are trained.
Also, it is highly inadvisable to show a Be My Eyes volunteer sensitive information like bank statements or any official paperwork, as they are not bonded.
Well, I guess it's just me
I only ever used BME to do things like check the dates on food and to make sure my undies matched after washing - never for anything I'd not want a stranger to know.
I don't think I'd use AIRA for anything private, but I suppose being able to if necessary will be nice.
I'd still rather have the glasses!
Access AI beta
Saw this beta mentioned on Mastodon. I applied and am now testing...
more Access AI beta
I am impressed by what I am seeing. anyone else?
Aira AI
My question is, what does this service give you that be my AI doesn't?
@Michael
It gives you nothing. Everything is the same except that for Aira you can waste your money but Be My Eyes is totally free. Some years ago Aira was available in my App Store as well and I remember that I uninstalled the app as fast as I downloaded it and now it is removed from my App Store so it is not available worldwide. I only see Aira Explorer now but I’m not sure if it works in Europe at all. But Be My Eyes is available worldwide and it is totally free.
access AI vs be my AI
I just want to start off by saying I, too have been testing access AI for a little while now and it does offer several significant advantages.
1. Detailed Image capture: This is my main reason for using access AI more than Be my Eyes. I can choose the camera I want for the shot, turns out telephoto with 3x zoom is great for OCR even when my main camera struggles a bit. Similarly I can use the wide or ultrawide cameras on my phone but I honestly just like switching between ultrawide and telephoto depending on the kind of shot. The other nice thing about detailed image capture is you can ask the AI to answer specific questions before it even processes your picture. This is great for internet screenshots for example where I can just ask it to read me the text or ask a very specific question so it doesn’t read me all these other things I don’t need.
2. The interface is a little better. It's easier to share things from the app, mark responses as helpful or not helpful, verify with an agent if you want. It's just designed a little better than Be my AI and I like how the android and iOS versions feel very similar, Be my AI’S sharing process is a little easier on android but the standardization is nicer with aira.
3. It could just be me but it seems like Access AI is a little faster than Be my Eyes with its responses. It's not by a huge margin but it just seems a little quicker. Anyways, that's why access AI is my default now.
Verification with an agent is a game changer!
I like the choice between quick and detailed...but for me, the big difference is the ability to verify the description with a human.
You don't talk to them, you select it and it comes back as either OK or they edit it. This is the final step needed to turn this tech from a toy into a tool.
I have no information on how this feature is going to be paid for. I assume it will come out of minutes, but I have no details yet.
Access AI is free
Hi all,
My understanding is that Access AI is free, but if you want to verify things with an agent in the future, that'll eat into your free 5 minutes. That's what it sounded like from a podcast I was listening to anyway. For the moment though it's all free, even verification with an agent.
I don’t see how it will be free forever
So first off I love running images from my gallery through the detailed image capture, like let’s say it's a chart or graph in a screenshot and I just want to know one data point. Be my Eyes will go through all the trouble telling me stuff I already know or don’t need to know about the size of the graph, what it's covering, the notifications on my phone screen, I just love being able to cut through all that when I already know what I want.
Now to my actual point it's free for now. I’m an optimist, I like the glass to be half full but I just don’t see how this expensive service can continue forever without some kind of monitizing. Grants only go so far.