FinSight: Empowering Financial Independence for the Visually Impaired

A vision-driven iOS app dedicated to enhancing financial independence for the visually impaired elderly.

Table of Contents

• About FinSight
  • Mission
  • Inspiration
  • Our Vision
• How FinSight Works
  • Text-to-Speech Magic
  • Plaid for Real-Time Financial Data
  • Optical Recognition for Receipts
  • Apple's Accessibility Features
• Challenges We Ran Into
• Accomplishments That We're Proud Of
• What We Learned
• What's Next for FinSight
• Join Us on this Journey
• Testimonials

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About FinSight

Mission

At FinSight, our mission is to break down barriers and make financial management accessible to everyone, regardless of their visual abilities. We understand the challenges that elderly individuals with visual impairments face when managing their finances, and we're here to bridge that gap.

Inspiration

The inspiration behind FinSight is to break down barriers and make financial management accessible to everyone, regardless of their visual abilities. We recognized the challenges faced by elderly individuals with visual impairments when it comes to managing their finances. Our mission is to empower them and ensure that they can confidently handle their financial affairs. With over 2.2 billion visually impaired people around the world, FinSight has the potential to change their lives by providing them with the tools they need to achieve financial independence and security.

Our Vision

We envision a world where financial independence knows no barriers, and where everyone can effectively manage their money. FinSight is our commitment to realizing this vision. It's not just an app; it's a catalyst for change.

How FinSight Works

Text-to-Speech Magic

Thanks to IBM Watson, ChatGPT, and Apple's Vision Framework, FinSight works like magic. It reads and transforms complex financial jargon and data into natural, easy-to-understand speech. Our app reads financial information aloud to users, ensuring they never miss a beat.

Plaid for Real-Time Financial Data

To ensure that FinSight provides users with up-to-date and accurate financial information, we integrated Plaid's data transfer network into our application. Plaid's robust financial data infrastructure allows us to access users' live bank account balances and transactions securely. This integration is pivotal in enabling users to effortlessly stay on top of their finances.

The key steps involved in leveraging Plaid's data transfer network within FinSight included:

1. Plaid API Integration: We seamlessly integrated Plaid's API into our application, allowing users to link their bank accounts securely.

2. Secure Data Transfer: Plaid's data transfer network ensures the secure transfer of financial data from users' banks to FinSight, maintaining the highest standards of data protection and privacy.

3. Real-Time Updates: With Plaid, users can access real-time account balances, review recent transactions, and gain a comprehensive view of their financial health without the need for manual data entry.

By incorporating Plaid's data transfer network, we've enhanced FinSight's ability to provide users with the most accurate and current financial information, further empowering them to manage their finances confidently and effectively.

Optical Recognition for Receipts

In addition to text-to-speech, we've integrated optical recognition technology into FinSight, enabling automatic content recognition in receipts. This feature streamlines the process of inputting and categorizing financial data:

1. AI-Powered Optical Recognition: We leveraged AI-based optical recognition APIs to automatically scan and interpret content from receipts. This technology identifies key information such as transaction amounts, dates, merchant names, and itemized lists of purchases.

2. Receipt Organization: Once the information is extracted, FinSight organizes it into a structured format, making it easily accessible to users. This automated process eliminates the need for manual entry, saving users time and reducing the risk of input errors.

3. Seamless Integration: The optical recognition feature seamlessly integrates with FinSight's existing interface, providing users with a comprehensive view of their financial transactions, both manually inputted and automatically recognized.

Apple's Accessibility Features

To provide a seamless "vision" for personal finance, we integrated Apple's versatile accessibility features. This ensures that FinSight is accessible to a wide range of users with varying needs:

• SiriKit Custom Intent: We utilized SiriKit's custom intent to provide accessible control over the app without the need to see the app. Users can use voice commands to perform various tasks within FinSight, enhancing the overall accessibility and user experience.

• Apple's Vision Framework: We implemented Apple's Vision framework to help detect whether the camera can see the document and implement its optical character recognition to send to the AI Models for analysis. This feature enhances the accessibility of FinSight, especially for users who may rely on visual input.

• AVFoundation Speech Features: We used AVFoundation Speech features to provide a simple text-to-speech for user experience. This addition ensures that users can benefit from spoken information and navigation within the app.

Challenges We Ran Into

During the development of FinSight, we encountered several challenges. Some of the major ones included:

• Integrating Text-to-Speech: Implementing Apple's Siri Text-to-Speech technology seamlessly within the app presented technical challenges that required creative response engineering.

• Designing for Accessibility: Ensuring that the user interface was genuinely accessible to elderly individuals with visual impairments and that SiriKit and AVFoundation Speech features while having Apple's Vision framework be the user's supporting eyes was a complex task.

• Data Security: Handling sensitive financial data securely was a top priority, and we invested significant thought in choosing the right services and technology to handle these data.

Accomplishments That We're Proud Of

We're proud of several key accomplishments:

• Accessibility: Successfully creating an app that truly serves the accessibility needs of elderly users with visual impairments, making financial management inclusive for all.

• Innovative Technology: Incorporating IBM Watson's text-to-speech technology alongside Apple's accessibility features to provide a unique and seamless user experience.

• Positive User Feedback: Receiving positive feedback from our early users, who have found FinSight to be a valuable tool in managing their finances.

What We Learned

Through the development of FinSight, we've learned valuable lessons in accessibility, user-centered design, and the importance of leveraging advanced technologies for social impact. More importantly, we've gained insights into the unique challenges faced by elderly individuals with visual impairments in managing their finances.

What's Next for FinSight

The journey for FinSight doesn't stop here. Our future plans include:

• Expanding Platform Compatibility: We aim to make FinSight available on a wider range of devices and platforms to reach an even broader audience.

• Enhanced Features: We plan to continuously improve the app by adding more features and functionality based on user feedback and evolving needs such as grocery pricing analysis, cash-counting, and many more.

• Community Engagement: Building a strong community around FinSight to gather insights, share experiences, and create a supportive environment for users.

• Global Outreach: Expanding our reach to make FinSight accessible to elderly individuals with visual impairments worldwide. The technology we used already supported a plethora of languages, but it is still a continuing journey to reach global inclusivity.

Thank you for considering FinSight, and we're excited about the journey ahead as we work towards a more inclusive and accessible financial world.

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Together, we can break down barriers, create a more inclusive world, and empower the elderly and the visually impaired to take control of their financial future.