In a move to help the visually impaired, Google has enhanced the features of its Lookout app, that lets people identify information about their surroundings. According to Google’s blog, this will help around 253 million people across the world who are visually impaired or blind.

Google Lookout can identify objects through the camera of a smartphone, using a similar technology like Google Lens. Once the app is opened, a person just has to point their phone at the object and the Artificial Intelligence (AI) will identify it. 

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“Lookout tells you about people, text, objects and much more as you move through a space. Once you’ve opened the Lookout app, all you have to do is keep your phone pointed forward,” the official blog says.

A new update also enables a computer voice to say what the person is holding without asking for anyone else’s help. Another function in the update is a scan document feature, which helps people by letting them take a screenshot of any document, which the software reads out aloud.

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The new feature is currently available only in the United States, and the company is making changes for it to function better. Lookout was announced in 2019.