RealThing Ai voice controlled smartphone offers hope to 5.6m elderly struggling with mobile phones
Australian technology company RealThing Ai has launched an easily accessible and “fully voice controlled” smartphone designed to help the UK’s estimated 5.6 million people who struggle to use modern mobile phones due to health barriers.
RealSAM Phone is the third product to be released from the RealThing Ai team, that has partnered with the RNIB and O2 to develop accessible smartphones for blind and partially sighted people since 2018.
Incorporating RealThing Ai’s ground-breaking technology, that’s backed by the Australian Government, RealSAM Phone is operated by simple voice controls. Users simply tap a large area on the phone’s screen and use their voice to ask RealSAM to make a call, send a text or use one of the many built-in personal assistant features designed to make life easier. These include a magnifier that can read handwriting or printed text out loud.
UK Country Manager for RealThing Ai, Louise Humphreys, said: “With the Christmas season giving many families the first opportunity in three years to come together, we’ve seen a leap in enquiries from loved ones seeking a solution to stay in touch with their parents and grandparents.
“Often contacting us having already explored other options, we’ve been told of relatives struggling to operate mobile phones with small buttons, to install apps or use menus on a touchscreen. We believe there is a need for an alternative phone in the market that’s easy to use, with less features, and that can be operated just by using your voice. We hope that with the launch of RealSAM Phone we can deliver on this need and help many families to stay connected this winter’’.
RealSAM Phone is designed for anyone who finds it easier to operate a smartphone by voice. Based on voice technology that has been used by blind and partially sighted people in the UK, US and Australia over four years, this may include people experiencing sight loss, physical barriers such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s and arthritis, or memory impairments, such as dementia. RealSAM Phone can also connect to hearing aids, using Bluetooth to stream the phone’s audio directly.
RealThing states that its solution is unique in that it can multi-task. For example, if a customer is using a RealSAM Phone to check the weather and a call arrives, they will be alerted to answer the call and returned to the weather at the end of the call. Its ability to manage complex interactions, it says, means it performs particularly well when voice is the only way to operate a technology.
The smartphone claims to be unique from other mainstream smartphones in that it has no on-screen apps, or buttons, so users simply tap the screen and talk to access its features. New features and apps are developed based on customer feedback and updated on to the phone automatically.
Features currently available on RealSAM that can be used by voice include making and receiving calls, sending and receiving messages, alerting contacts, turning on the inbuilt video magnifier, adding contacts to an address book, getting help from the ‘Be My Eyes Service’, setting reminders, finding out the time and checking the weather.
The phone is based on a customised Samsung Galaxy A04 handset installed with the RealThing Ai voice software. The Samsung Galaxy A04 is an Android 12 device featuring a 50MP main camera for exceptional image clarity, 32GB of storage, and a 5000 mAh battery for up to 54 hours talk time. The phone comes with a 24-month warranty and unlimited software upgrades.
RealThing Ai offers all customers ongoing and unlimited business hours telephone support from its UK based customer support team. This includes help with adding contacts and connecting the phone to wifi. Customers can also log in to the RealSAM web portal to manage the phone’s contacts remotely.
RealSAM Phone is included in the RNIB Technology Grant Scheme, which offers eligible customers up to £350 off the cost of purchasing.
In January 2022, the firm launched its voice accessible smartphone, the RealSAM Pocket V4, aimed at those with sight loss. Its features include Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Object Recognition, and an enhanced Emergency On-call Assistant.
News of the new smartphone by RealThing Ai comes after WeWALK, the company behind the world’s first smartphone-connected ‘smart cane’ for the visually impaired, last month announced a £2m investment round to help evolve its technology and grow its global market presence.
