BlindSquare
| Category | Price | Seller | Device |
|---|---|---|---|
| Navigation | $39.99 | MIPsoft | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
BlindSquare is a new solution that combines the latest technology to help the blind with their daily lives. It has been developed in collaboration with blind people and carefully field tested. You need either an iPhone or an iPad to get started. It also supports some additional accessories to enhance the experience.
How does it work?
BlindSquare uses GPS and the compass to locate you. It then gathers information about the surrounding environment from FourSquare. BlindSquare has some unique algorithms to decide what information is the most relevant and then speaks it to you with high quality speech synthesis.
“What's the most popular café within 200 meters radius? Where is the post office or the library?”
You can control BlindSquare also through voice commands. The Voice Command feature is a premium service requiring purchase of credits for continuous use. Voice Command Credits are available as an in-app purchase on the App Store.
Using BlindSquare as a GPS solution:
When you start the app, it will start telling you the interesting places and street crossings around you. By changing the radius, you can limit the area you are interested in. You can also search by search term or by category. You can select an interesting place from the search results and perform the following tasks:
1) Get contact info (address, phone number)
2) Open twitter feed or restaurant menu (if provided)
3) Make a phone call
4) Start tracking the place (BlindSquare will assist you by repeating the distance and the clock face direction)
5) Start your favourite navigator for turn-by-turn instructions (TomTom, Navigon or Apple Maps)
BlindSquare is aware of when you travel by car, bus or train and starts to report interesting places in front of you (for example, the next stops) and street crossings when you are passing them.
You can also save your own private places to iCloud so they will be found with your every device.
Using BlindSquare as a Foursquare client:
If you like to play Foursquare, you can do the following with BlindSquare:
1) Get a list of nearby FourSquare venues
2) When you are in a place, you can check in by shaking your device
3) Do a check in with commenting and twitter/facebook sharing
4) Correct the location of the place
BlindSquare supports the following languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Czech, Russian, Estonian, Polish, Arabic, Turkish, Portuguese, Japanese, Greek, Romanian, Croatian, Hungarian, Korean and Bulgarian.
VoiceOver usage is supported but it also includes higher quality additional speech synthesis by Acapela Text-To-Speech from Acapela Group.
Instructions in English: http://help.blindsquare.com/instructions and http://blindsquare.com/faq
Please note: This app retrieves data in real time from Foursquare and Open Street Map. Use of a flat rate data plan is highly recommended.
Having only been released in May 2012, BlindSquare has already received several prizes and awards:
- GSMA: Global Mobile Awards 2013, Best Mobile Health Product or Service
- Apps4Finland 2012
- OpenCities App Challenge 2012
- The Finnish Information Processing Association: Best Product 2012
Please note: To use BlindSquare, your iCloud account has to be active so BlindSquare can access it to save your settings and places.
Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life.
Reviews
Best GPS program for blind people
Livininseattle
I had had it for A number of years and use It all the time. you have to pay once and use as long as you want. Most other Apps like this you have to pay every year. It helps me Get around everywhere and it is cheaper than most others
Still my first go to app when figuring out where I am and what's around me.
,happy ,mom
Even though the GPS is not great in my area, this is the first app I open when I get turned around in my town or need to know which train stop I am coming up to. I also used this app extensively to mark my tent and other landmarks on camping trips. This app gave me the option of being far more independent while camping. This is also the best app for identifying both the walking paths and parks along side the cafes and businesses that dot my town. I have 2 complaints. 1 The bluetooth connectivity warning should not open every time that I open the app. Once is enough. 2. The Tracking a location using the clock face or cardinal coordinates takes a lot of practice and concentration. It was very cool once I figured it out.
Street Notification vacations
Dave_from my Nevada
This app is pretty good but you have to know where you’re going in order for this app to be successful, I would like to see when it announces upcoming streets what side of the street they are on Briggs ample if you were walking along the right hand side of the street and it says Apple Street 10 o’clock it would be nice to know if it’s only on your left-hand side or straightahead of you anyway other than that pretty good app besides getting turn by turn
Could be a nice app, but FourSquare ruins it
Srerrrrhh
I like this app, but I don't use it because FourSquare’s POIs are incredibly inaccurate because anyone can add them. For example, people like to mark their own house as a bar or nightclub. You'll come across places that dome actually exist. It would be so much more accurate if they dropped the FourSquare integration entirely and used something like Google Maps or Navteq to find points of interest.
A must have
AngelKM
I'm completely blind and love this app works perfect here in Chicago even tells me exactly where the bus stops and train stations are at thank you for creating an app that has given me my independence back I don't know what I would do without BlindSquare.
Great App, But Needs Improvement
Steelplayer75
I'vb used this app since 2013 and I love it. The biggest problem I've run into is that it reports inaccurate addresses and street names when I make turns. The only correct information it reports for a time is the direction I'm going, and that's how I know what street I'm on. Like someone said in another review, you have to have familiarity with where you are or you'll be totally confused. I live in the San Fernando Valley in the Los Angeles area.
Support for UAe is needed
Khalfan_bd
The app is great and it does almost what I want, but I'm hoping to see better support for indoor navigation places in Dubai as it's currently inaccurate.
I would switch back from Nearby Explorer
bobjutzi
Blind Square was the first GPS app I started using it and love it. I am totally blind and would switch back to Blind Square if turn-by-turn guidance were added.
Blind Square in excellent shape
Gortheer
I have only good remarks about this app.After trying it out, I was amazed by its audible announcements of locations. It even detected some of the buildings on my college campus, which impressed me very much. Fantastic work!
