Microsoft's New iPhone App Helps Blind People 'See' What's Around Them

Microsoft has used its artificial intelligence chops to automatically add captions to your selfies and guess your age. Now, the company is applying similar tech to a more practical purpose: making everyday life easier for the visually impaired. The company's new Seeing AI app, which is now available for the iPhone, uses the smartphone's camera to detect and describe nearby people, text, and objects. The app not only recognizes a person based on his or her face, but can also relay mood based on facial expressions, estimate a person's proximity to the user, and describe physical characteristics. In a demo video, Seeing AI provided a description of a woman smiling by saying: "28 year old female wearing glasses looking happy."