Samsung is working to enable its TVs to recognize sign language for commands like “turn on the television.”
What features will be available for people with hearing loss?
Samsung’s TV lineup is about to become a lot more accessible for people with low vision or hearing loss. The company said all of its 2020 QLED and Neo QLED models will come with new features like being able to move captions to avoid blocking other text on a video and the ability zoom in on a sign language window to see it better.
“We don’t want to exclude anyone,” Byungho Kim, of Samsung’s social contribution centre in Suwon, said in a video during Samsung’s event. “Our technology is for everyone.”
What features will be available for people with vision loss?
Along with “Caption Moving” and “Sign Language Zoom,” Samsung also showed off the ability to invert colours on a menu. It leaves the video as it is but makes it easier for people who are low vision to see the menu options. “It looks simple but to enable this technology, we had to start by re-engineering the chipset,” Samsung said. Its SeeColors feature lets people who are colour blind see colours, and its Learn Remote Control feature that verbally tells users what each button on the remote controls.
How much will the new TVs cost?
Samsung hasn’t yet said what its 2021 TVs will cost, but it’s likely they won’t come cheap. The lowest end Neo QLED for this year roughly equates to last year’s 65-inch Q80. That TV retails for $1,500 (US). Samsung hasn’t said if any of the features will come to its older televisions.
The accessibility news came along with a host of other TV-related announcements from Samsung. The company unveiled a slimmer version of its Frame TV that resembles a painting on the wall; new Neo QLED TVs that take on OLED, come with solar-powered remotes and have a camera-based, AI virtual trainer to critique your workouts; and new soundbars with subwoofer microphones and Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant. Samsung also said it’s going green when it comes to its TVs, including by making the packaging more easy to re-use.
Along with being virtual, this year’s CES — and the tech world in general — could see some other changes. There’s likely to be a focus on technology that helps people in the current environment. For Samsung’s electronics business, that means innovations for people in the home, including its new accessibility features.
