The plan behind the story · In a Tokyo museum, the tour guide is a suitcase Chieko Asakawa dreamed up at an airport
Four weeks of AI that looks for you, and how far to trust it
A month of using free camera-based AI on ordinary things: labels, menus, timetables, streets. If you are new to it, it ends with one tool you trust for one job. If you already use AI, it ends with your own accuracy record and an hour a month helping someone with sight loss.
Why this works
Chieko Asakawa’s AI suitcase does three things a good guide does: it sees what is there, judges what matters, and tells the person holding it in a way they can use. Miraikan describes the parts: a LiDAR sensor that measures the walls, depth cameras, and image-recognition AI that picks out people and which way they are moving. The suitcase has had years of trials, including a month in Tokyo’s Nihonbashi district in 2022 in which, J-Stories reported, all 39 visually impaired users arrived safely.
The AI on a phone is far less tested than that, which is the point of this plan. You will use it on real things, and you will keep score. By the end you will know what it is good at, where it slips, and which jobs you would never give it.
Two habits run through every week:
- Check what it tells you. Henshaws, the UK sight-loss charity, says Be My AI is not accurate every time. No AI is.
- Keep private details out. Be My Eyes advises against using its AI for sensitive personal information, medicine packaging, allergen information or getting about. Treat every free AI tool that way.
Before you start
- Pick one tool. If you or someone you help has sight loss, the Be My Eyes app is free on iPhone and Android and has Be My AI built in. Otherwise use whichever free AI assistant you already have, provided it has a camera or photo button. Your first conversation with an AI assistant covers the free options.
- Make a scorecard. A notebook page with four columns: what I photographed, what it said, right / partly / wrong, what it missed.
- Set your no-go list. Write down the things you will not photograph for it: bank cards, letters with account or reference numbers, prescriptions and medicine boxes, anything with someone else’s face or details. Stick it inside the notebook cover.
The plan
| Week | Do this | How often | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (new to this) | Photograph one ordinary thing a day (a shelf, a fridge door, a view from a window) and ask “What is in this picture?” Score it. | 5 days | Ask one follow-up each time: “What colour is the mug on the left?” |
| 1 (already using AI) | Ten test photos across five kinds: printed text, a handwritten note, a street, a crowded room, a dim room. Score each. | 10 photos over the week | Note which kind it gets wrong most. |
| 2 (new to this) | Try printed words: a tin label, a bus timetable, a menu. Ask it to read them aloud or list them, and check every line. | 4 days | Not medicine packets, whatever the temptation. |
| 2 (already using AI) | Repeat your three worst photos from week 1 with better light and a steadier hand. Did the score change? | 3 retakes | Henshaws notes there is no real-time guidance when taking a photo, so several attempts may be needed. |
| 3 (new to this) | Use it for one real errand: reading the small print on a timetable or a sign before a trip. Confirm what it says with the official source. | Twice | If it is wrong about something that matters, stop using it for that job. |
| 3 (already using AI) | If you are sighted, sign up as a Be My Eyes volunteer, so a blind or partially sighted person can video-call you for help. | Once, then whenever a call comes | Henshaws says Be My AI does not replace the volunteers. |
| 4 (both) | Add up your scorecard. Write one sentence: “I will use it for ___, and never for ___.” | Once | This is your own rule, made from your own evidence. |
If it goes wrong
- It describes something that is not there. That is normal for AI. Mark it wrong, retake the photo once, and move on. If the same kind of picture keeps failing, cross that job off your list.
- It sounds certain and is wrong. Our guide to checking when AI gets it wrong has a short routine for checking anything important against a second source.
- You photographed something private by mistake. Delete the conversation in the app, and read our guide to what to tell an AI and what to keep private for what to do next time.
- The app will not open or share a picture. Henshaws says some apps, such as Facebook, will not share straight to Be My Eyes: save the picture to your photos first and share from there.
Track it
Your scorecard is the record. At the end of each week, count right, partly and wrong. If the score climbs, ask whether the tool got better or you learned which pictures and questions work: usually it is some of both.
What next
- Look through your phone’s built-in accessibility settings: some of what you want may already be there, with no AI needed.
- In Tokyo? Join an AI Suitcase tour at Miraikan and see how a well-tested system compares.
- Show one other person what you learned, including the no-go list. That is the habit that protects people best.
General information, not medical advice. Check with your GP before starting a new exercise programme.