Living in a visually-driven world, we often forget those around us with limited sight or who are entirely blind. A few decades ago, people with visual disabilities had to rely on methods such as bill folding, use of special wallets that have separate compartments for each denomination, or (in rare instances) creating tactile identification marks on bills of different denominations to identify money. Although these methods are still effective, more advanced assistive technology devices and mobile apps have become available to help people who are blind or visually impaired identify currency.
Many currencies around the world have tangible marks on the edges or at corners of their notes to enable people with visual challenges to detect the value of each note. Whereas most currencies have such features, detecting it is harder. Enter Cash Reader, a money identifier app that will let you identify the largest number of world currencies.
What is Cash Reader? Why should you download it?
Cash Reader is a money identifier application that helps the visually impaired, including those who are totally blind, to identify the value of money. It detects the value of a note and reads it out to the person or vibrating the value if the phone is on silent mode.
If you’re blind or visually impaired, Cash Reader will fit you like a glove. This easy-to-use money reader app acts as your eyes by identifying banknote denominations in numerous languages, including English, Spanish, Italian, German, Dutch,, Japanese and more.
Download: Cash Reader for iOS | Android
How Did Cash Reader Start?
This highly effective money reader app was launched by Two Czech developers, Tomas Jelínek and Martin Douděra in 2018. It all started when a blind friend asked the developer Martin Douděra if he would create an application for him to read Czech banknotes. Together with Tomas Jelínek, they soon created the Cash Reader mobile application, which has no competition in the world.
Cash Reader was well-received worldwide and won several accessibility awards, including the prestigious international AI for Accessibility Hackathon, which is held under the auspices of Microsoft in 2020.
How Does Cash ReaderWork?
Cash Reader uses the camera on a smartphone to recognize currency and speak or vibrate the denomination, turning the daily unseen into an audible experience.
After starting the app, all you need to do is to point your phone’s camera at the bill you want to identify, and the app will announce the denomination, either through speech or vibration patterns.
It doesn’t matter which way you use it, even if you show just a small portion of the note to the camera, it will work. This is important for people with disabilities such as blindness or coordination disorder, but it also provides a fast and reliable experience to users without disabilities.
Cash Reader works offline, under all light conditions, identifies folded or damaged bills no matter the side or angle.
The app can also identify currency under different lighting conditions, even at night, and in several languages, including English, Swahili, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Polish, Portugese, Russian, Korean, Finnish, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Japanese, Greek, Hungarian, and more.
Cash Reader provides reliable money identification on any smartphone using early Android versions to the recent and advanced phones; therefore, it can be used by almost all visually impaired people.
How Does Cash Reader Benefit You as a Person With a Visual Disability?
For people who are blind or visually impaired, counting money can be an immense challenge. Most countries just varied the size and colour of the notes according to the denominations, so a totally blind person cannot tell the difference. For instance, in United State, the $100 bill is the exact same size as the $1, making cash transactions extremely difficult for people who are blind or visually impaired. Even in other countries, identifying currency can present problems for people with sight loss.
You can use Cash Reader to:
- Recognize bills and currencies when you pay cash.
- Confirm that you have been given the correct change by the cashier.
- Identify and organize paper money by denomination
Why Should You Use Cash Reader?
Just because you have a visual disability, doesn’t mean you have to always depend upon the kindness of strangers to know the value of different denominations of paper money.
Cash Reader announces the denomination in your choice of two ways: It can speak the banknote amount; or it can vibrate silently, which may be helpful in keeping your financial information private when you use the app at a cash register or count your change.
The application doesn’t need an Internet connection to work, which means you can read money at any location, and at anytime.
Whether you want to verify money while checking out or to ensure you are getting the right amount of change back, let technological advances like Cash Reader bring light to your life and give you an independence you never thought possible.
Technology can help people overcome challenges and make the world a more accessible place. People who are blind or visually impaired can become more independent by using apps such as Cash Reader to identify currency.
Do you know anyone who might benefit from Cash Reader? Have you seen how technology can help people overcome challenges? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!