[tubemonkey]

"Alexa, what am I holding?"

After losing her sight suddenly at age 41, Stacie Grijalva faced a new reality, one that inspired a new mission. A mechanical engineer by background, Grijalva was committed to exploring how assistive technology could make life a little easier for the blind and visually impaired, and sharing that information with others. “My job is to help people with visual impairments see how technology can affect people’s lives and make them feel better about what they do on a day-to-day basis.”

Alexa-enabled devices are already a big help around the house for Grijalva, from changing the channel on her Fire TV to using her voice to turn off lights and appliances. Now, an Echo Show feature makes it easier to identify household pantry items.

With Show and Tell, blind and low vision customers can hold up an item to the Echo Show camera and ask, “Alexa, what am I holding,” and Alexa helps identify the item through advanced computer vision and machine learning technologies for object recognition.

“The whole idea for Show and Tell came about from feedback from blind and low vision customers,” said Sarah Caplener, head of Amazon’s Alexa for Everyone team. “We heard that product identification can be a challenge and something customers wanted Alexa’s help with. Whether a customer is sorting through a bag of groceries, or trying to determine what item was left out on the counter, we want to make those moments simpler by helping identify these items and giving customers the information they need in that moment.”