----- Original Message -----
From: Julie Adkins
To: VICUG-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, October 15, 2015 11:23 AM
Subject: [VICUG-L] an article I have written about BlindSquare
Hello all. This is technology trainer Julie Adkins. I finally bought
BlindSquare a couple of months ago after a discussion on a listserv
convinced me it was something really special. And now that I have fully
explored its features, it really is so special that I wrote an article about
it as part of an upcoming blog for the Carroll Center. I don’t want anyone
to miss out on this app because they didn’t understand what it was like I
did. I had been wrongly telling people it was a blind person’s version of
Foursquare, and I thought Foursquare was just a way of “checking in” online
to tell people where you are. And I don’t give a flip if you just checked
in at Starbuck’s you know? Or I thought maybe people used it as their GPS
app, and I couldn’t understand why people didn’t just use the built in Maps
app on the iPhone. So I wrote this to tell everyone what BlindSquare really
is. And, of course, there are already tons of articles and podcasts out
there about it. I had just never taken the time to read them or listen to
them because I am not blind and I am not a mobility instructor. So, if you
are like me, and didn’t think BlindSquare would mean anything to you, maybe
this will change your mind.
The article begins below…
If you are an independent traveler, or you like to have control over
planning your route and finding places around you, I just can’t say enough
good things about an app called BlindSquare. Okay, it costs $30.00. So,
you may ask, why would I want to spend $30.00 on an app if my phone has a
GPS app built in, and I can just ask Siri to give me directions wherever I
want to go? First of all, it finds many more places than your iPhone does.
This is because behind the scenes it uses data that has been input by
thousands of users of a very popular app called Four Square. Secondly, the
app makes it extremely easy to find places to go and things to do (these are
called “Points of Interest” or POIs in GPS apps). Everything is broken down
into categories, like Food, Arts and Entertainment, Nightlife spots,
Outdoors and Recreation, and Shop and Service, and then each category has a
list of subcategories of things as specific as Afghan Food, or Falafel
Restaurant (in Food), or Shoe Repair or ATMs (in Shop and Service). You can
just read through the list of places in each category to see what is
available, or have it announce the places to you as you are walking or
riding. If you need directions, you can ask it to give you directions to
your destination through the built in Maps app, Google maps, or several
other popular navigation apps, such as Wav, TomTom, and Navigon. You can
even order an Uber ride from right within the app.
If you are walking or riding and having BlindSquare announce Points of
Interest to you as you go, you can use a filter to narrow it down to just
the information you want to hear. The example they give is that you want to
go shopping for clothes, but you don’t know which shops you want to visit.
You would ask BlindSquare to only tell you places in the Shop and Service
category as you are walking through the city (and of course then you could
even narrow it down to one of the subcategories if you wish, like clothing
store). Or maybe have it only look for Food if you are looking for
restaurants. And, of course, you could just search for a specific place if
you know exactly where you want to go, or have it search within a specific
distance. Easily save places to your Favorites so you can find them again
quickly. You can even simulate a trip from a certain spot so you can find
out in advance what will be around you when you go somewhere, preplan your
routes for when you will be there, and so on.
You can ask Blind Square to tell you what points of interest (including
intersections) are around you within a certain radius, and you get to choose
the radius. It even has a feature called Look Around that allows you to
point your phone in a direction and find out what is located in that
particular direction (again, you get to choose the distance). Just shake
the phone to exit this Look Around mode. When you are walking, you can also
just shake the phone to find out where you are. You can even leave your
ears open to listen to traffic and other sounds in the environment by using
bone conducting head phones. No, I didn’t realize there was such a thing,
either. Apparently they have been in use by walkers and joggers for quite
some time. There is a link within the BlindSquare app to find them on
Amazon. It appears they range from about $50 to $150, depending on their
features, such as battery life and sound quality. I would imagine you would
want to be sure they are wireless (Bluetooth).
If you want to read about all the features Blindsquare has to offer (yes,
there are more!), you can find the help file on the internet at
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1Rz0w2tRq0uAVx9DQ0hpyVCX9G3c8IundPnzksTI1nVQ.
Also check out this YouTube video of a blind person walking around by
herself in a mall to see how it can work indoors with devices called
iBeacons that transmit information about the person’s location as he or she
walks by: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jH-Bdjmgb4. No, sorry, these
iBeacons are not set up in your local mall. But this shows what is possible
for independent travel in the future. The video has dialogue in another
language, so if you use a screen reader, be sure it is set to read captions.
There are other videos about BlindSquare on YouTube—just be sure they are in
English.
If you want to try BlindSquare out without buying it, they have a demo
version called Blindsquare Event that is free. You can't use it to get
around in your environment (it is not going to connect to any GPS apps), but
it lets you try out its other features as if you are located in places like
Times Square in New York or Big Ben in London.
When the app opens, choose the option for Demo, and then choose the
simulated location you want to explore.
Julie Adkins
Assistive Technology Trainer
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