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Activity book. Track 4. Page 4. Activities 1 and 2. Google's Lookout app helps blind people experience the world.

Google has launched a new app designed to help blind people explore their surroundings.

The free app, called Lookout, is currently available to users in the United States who own a Google Pixel device.

The app uses technology similar to Google Lens. That product uses machine learning to recognize text and objects through a device's camera. Users can then receive information about or take actions related to the text and recognized objects.

The app uses a device's camera to recognize text and objects and then provide voice descriptions about what it sees.

The app can learn to judge what things are most important to a person over time.

Lookout has three main settings for people to use.

The Explore setting is designed to provide assistance for people carrying out daily activities or for identifying things in new places. A Shopping setting can capture products and help users identify their money. The Quick Read setting can help users go through their mail, read signs or identify other printed materials.

Users can control parts of the app through a fingertip sensor. Google says the goal of the app is to provide more independence to the nearly 253 million people in the world who are blind or have severe vision difficulties.

There are other apps and devices designed to assist these people, too. Microsoft's free Seeing AI app works similarly to Google Lookout. Microsoft says the system can provide audio sounds that relate to current light levels around the user. The app produces small vibrations and sounds to help this process.

Another free app, called Be My Eyes, connects blind or low-sight individuals with sighted volunteers through live video calls.

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