Alibaba's inexpensive smart screen plastic chip make online shopping easier for blind peoples.|Technical Starting|

Alibaba global website always discovered new technology solutions for helping humans in all stages. Now, that time Alibaba designs new technology-based Smart Touch that can help blind people as well as all human being to do online shopping easier.

Following are the main points that the company revealed:-

1) Alibaba’s $15 billion R&D initiative Damo Academy and China’s prestigious Tsinghua University has been jointly working from the past two years to improve smartphone experience for the blinds and develops a cheap silicone sheet that goes on top of smartphone screens.

Alibaba's blind smartphone feature “Smart Touch” plastic sheet helps smoothen smartphone experience for the visually impaired. / Photo credit: Alibaba

2) This technology is giving to one hundred visually impaired or blind users to trial this. 

3) This plastic smart chip is cost nothing, to produce until one has a closer look its cost in RMB 0.25 or 3.6 American cents each.

4) There are three mini buttons on each side. They are sensory-enabled, which means pressing on them triggers certain commands, usually those that are frequently used like “go back” and “confirm” etc that are used to place orders. That's a much easier method to shop online with this smart chip for blinds.

5) It removes the risk of wrong clicking and the need for complex interactions with screens because it also has shortcut buttons.

6) This smart chip has the same technology that makes voice control devices possible i.e. Human-machine interaction smart touch powering.

7) Smart Touch isn't meant for touching through fingers but It also works when users hold their phones up to the ears. Alibaba claims that Ear touch uses to listen to text quickly in public without having any problems like to blast it out through speakers or headphones and show a 50% less time is needed to complete tasks like taking calls and online shopping, etc.

8) This smart touch chip also takes care of motions. Because finding the products on screens for Visual disabilities peoples tend to be more difficult.

9) Also, users need to double-click on the silicone button before a command goes through the smart touch sheet.

10) At the moment, Smart Touch works only on special editions of Alibaba’s two flagship apps, e-commerce marketplace Taobao and payment affiliate Alipay. The buttons automatically take on different functions when users switch between apps.

11) Zaho said, The Smart Touch technology is ready and requires more testing on different smartphones before it officially launches early 2019 and hands-on to users. So company first recruiting volunteers for feedback.

12) The blind population is relatively small so the beta test of Smart Touch is difficult. The company decides in future this technology haptic films can be mass produced at low costs — for free through Alibaba’s expanding network of brick-and-mortar stores. After launching time will tell public relations with this smart touch technology and whether the accessibility scheme is more or less.

     Research director Chen Zhao at Damo Academy told thought, human-machine interaction can’t just be for sighted people it can help all humans in many ways in the future.