Apple, accessibility and brain implant
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Apple said on Tuesday it is bringing a host of new features later this year that are geared towards making its devices more accessible, including a braille note taker and expanded 'zoom' for its mixed-reality headsets,
Apple previewed new Vision Pro accessibility features today that could turn the headset into a proxy for eyesight when they launch in visionOS later this year. The update uses the headset’s main camera to magnify what a user sees or to enable live, machine-learning-powered descriptions of surroundings.
According to the company's press release, this year in particular marks "40 years of accessibility innovation at Apple." It's also 20 years since the company first launched its screen reader, and a significant amount of this year's updates are designed to help those with vision impairments.
Apple is working on a way for people with physical disabilities to control devices with their thoughts. On Tuesday, the tech giant announced a partnership with brain-computer interface (BCI) company Synchron that's developing an implantable device with electrodes that read brain signals.