Google's Lookout app can help read food labels and currency for blind people

The tech company has added new modes to its app to allow users to identify products and read text

Google has updated its Lookout app to include a food label mode that recognises bar codes and food products. Unsplash

Lookout by Google is an app that uses AI to help people with low vision or blindness identify things. It has now added a feature that makes it easier to read food labels, currency notes, documents and other texts.

The app was launched by the tech company in the US last year, and it is currently available for smartphones that have the Android operating system. It uses the same technology as Google’s Lens app, which offers information on captured images, including books, clothes and buildings.

The latest update to Lookout introduces modes for food labels, documents and currency.

The food label mode scans barcodes and can recognise the front of a packaged food product. To use it, users must hold the product’s label in front of their phone camera, after which Google’s screen reader can read out the description.

Lookout has around two million products identified and stored in its database, though the number of recognisable items changes on the user’s geography. At the moment, the food label mode is available in 20 countries.

Scan document mode can read aloud full pages of text or magnify the text on one’s phone. The app provides real-time guidance for users to take a good picture of the document so the app can decipher the text clearly. The feature also works for mail and short texts.

Presently, Currency mode only works with US dollars. Lookout can read one bill at a time and is able to determine the denomination from the front or back of the bill.

The update also includes a more accessible design for Google’s TalkBack, its Android screen reader. One of the latest tweaks is a larger camera view, so users can more easily frame objects that they would like to know more about.

Lookout is available in French, German and Spanish. It is currently not available in Arabic.