Tesco wants to make shopping in its stores easier for people who are blind or partially sighted. To this end, the British retailer launched a six-month pilot programme in collaboration with the Be My Eyes community on World Sight Day. The Be My Eyes app provides customers with support while shopping and allows them to contact Tesco employees who can assist them if necessary.
With the help of the app, users can, for example, identify products on shelves, select right sizes and product variants, or recognise expiry dates. They also get access to Clubcard offers, promotional items and rewards. The app also assists at self-checkout and allows users to request direct help from Tesco staff at any time.
“Everyone is welcome at Tesco, and with Be My Eyes, we can help support visually impaired customers by connecting them with a Tesco colleague for live, in-store support using a simple video call,” explains Russell Price, Chair of Disability Network at Tesco, adding that the trial should help make shopping at Tesco even more accessible for blind or partially sighted customers.
App relies on AI and people alike
In addition to technologies such as speech recognition, computer vision and artificial intelligence, Be My Eyes uses numerous volunteers to build a support network for people who are visually impaired. They can use the Be My Eyes app to contact an assistant who helps them with daily tasks or describes in detail the image shown by the user via its front camera. Alternatively, the app utilises AI to provide a detailed description of the object or scene shown, as well as contextual help.
Drawing on an extensive network of people also helps to overcome obstacles that solutions relying solely on technology may fail to address. For example, in retail, product master data that related apps need to access is often of poor quality or insufficiently maintained. The combination of human and technological support promises future participation even for people who have not been able to shop independently until now.
Volunteers provide support worldwide
The Be My Eyes community began its work in Denmark in 2015 and now has nearly 10 million volunteers worldwide who can support visually impaired people in more than 180 languages and 150 countries. Be My Eyes technology runs on smartphones and tablets, Windows computers as well as on smart glasses.
Participating companies and organisations have entitled employees who are specifically tasked with supporting people with vision loss. Users can contact them via the app’s service directory. Here they will also find information about service centres of important organisations, companies and authorities.
