Reading time: 5 minutes approx.

Overview

The Be My Eyes app for Windows assists people who are blind or have low vision by providing detailed AI-powered descriptions of images and graphics. The Be My Eyes app is free to download and use from the Microsoft Store.

You can learn more about Be My Eyes services at https://bemyeyes.com and listen to a demo of Be My Eyes for Windows from Shaun Preece as part of the popular Double Tap Podcast.

Key features

You can use the Be My Eyes for Windows app to do the following:

• Describe your screen.
• Describe image files.
  
• Describe images copied to the windows Clipboard.
• Describe a picture taken by your camera.

Useful keyboard commands

You can navigate the Be My Eyes interface using TAB and Arrow Keys and activate buttons by pressing the SPACEBAR or ENTER key.

When Be My Eyes is active, you can also do the following:

• Press Ctrl + Alt + H to describe your screen.
• Press Ctrl + Alt + J to take picture using your inbuilt camera.
• Press Ctrl + Alt + K to describe picture from File Explorer.
• Press Ctrl + Alt + L to describe the image copied to clipboard.

These are global hotkeys. This means you do not have to be inside the Be My Eyes app to use them. On pressing the hotkey, Be My Eyes will process the image, place the focus inside the Be My Eyes app, and provide a description of the image.

If you would like more information about the image, simply ask your question in the query box and press ENTER.

While chatting with Be My Eyes, you can press RIGHT ALT + 1 to 9 to speak your chat history (with RIGHT ALT + 1 speaking the most recent entry).

You can also press SHIFT + TAB to move into the chat history list and use the UP and DOWN ARROW keys to review the questions and answers. To copy a response to the clipboard, press SHIFT + F10 to open the context menu and choose "Copy".

Preparing for a video call

As previously mentioned, you can use Be My Eyes to help you prepare for an upcoming video call. You can do this by doing the following:

1. Open the Be My Eyes app.
2. Select the "Take picture" button.
3. Select the "Take photo" button.
4. Select the "Accept" button. Alternatively, if you can view the screen, you may prefer to review the image and use the "Retake photo" button if the image is unsatisfactory. On choosing "Accept", the image is analysed, and a basic description is provided.
5. Ask follow up questions such as "What is the position of the person in the image", "What is visible in the background", "Is the lighting adequate for a video call", etc.
6. Repeat the process until you are confident that your position, your background, and your lighting meet your requirements.
7. Close Be My Eyes and make your video call.