that is good to hear Mike but when I took mine for a spin last night walking! I
really could not understand some of the commands with regard to the clock face.
I was being informed that something was X metres away at 12 o'clock but given
the length of my road there would be just footpath ahead of me at 12 o'clock so
it totally confused me then told me that there was a food place at 1 o'clock
and to get to that I would've had to go through several blocks of houses! I
like how it told me the roads I was approaching because I liked knowing the
names of these roads and I liked knowing the house numbers I was outside so I
must take it again but all these different Sounds did irritate me all I want is
the information and not to be entertained by sounds.
On 16 Oct 2015, at 16:50, Mike Ray <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:-
I've now bought BlindSquare and it is very good. Does exactly what I
wanted.
On 15/10/2015 21:29, Angel (Redacted sender angel238 for DMARC) wrote:
----- 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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--
Michael A. Ray
Analyst/Programmer
Witley, Surrey, South-east UK
Eyes-free Linux:
http://eyesfreelinux.ninja/
Raspberry VI:
http://www.raspberryvi.org/
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