Glasses as museum guide: AI eyewear describes paintings at Milan's Brera
Meta and EssilorLuxottica are piloting AI glasses for blind and visually impaired visitors at the Pinacoteca di Brera: they recognise eight masterpieces and describe them in audio.
Archive image · Photo: Danielle Jansen / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Since mid-October, Milan's Pinacoteca di Brera has been using AI glasses from Meta and EssilorLuxottica to make art accessible to blind and visually impaired people. The pilot project is called “Sensing Art” and covers eight selected works from the existing “DescriVedendo” tour. When a visitor stands in front of one of the paintings, the glasses recognise it and play a description through speakers in the temples, while the open-ear design keeps surrounding sounds audible. According to Finestre sull'Arte, visitors can choose between a description of forms and composition, an art-historical analysis and the artist's biography.
Short audio prompts guide visitors from one work to the next. The Meta AI voice assistant answers questions, and through the Be My Eyes service sighted volunteers and trained staff can be reached live. The Italian blind associations UICI and ANS and Milan's Institute for the Blind are involved. The glasses are available by reservation from Tuesday to Friday, 10am to 4.30pm.
“Making heritage accessible means creating the conditions so that everyone can build their own relationship with art,” said Brera director Angelo Crespi. Meta's Maxine Williams said: “When innovation addresses real needs, it can create tangible value in people's lives.” UICI president Mario Barbuto stressed that it is essential to directly involve users in the design and development of such solutions.