TheBlindJournalist: Be My Eyes Application

listen to ‘Be My Eyes demonstration ’ on audioBoom

Will you Be My Eyes?

 

The smartphone market is inundated with applications or ‘apps’. These applications can vary from games to banking tools. But this market is also being used to create apps which assist the blind and visually impaired.

Be My Eyes is the latest arrival in the Apple App Store, which has been trending worldwide with 90,957 tweets from January 17^th to February 16^th – according to topsy.com

The app has been created by Hans Jorgen Wiberg, who is visually impaired himself. He showcased the idea in April 2012 at a Startup Weekend in Denmark. Hans told In Touch, BBC Radio 4’s disability programme that:

“I am visually impaired myself.

When I got myself an iPhone I started to use FaceTime, which is a video chat application. I told a few of my blind friends about FaceTime and they told me that they use this to gain assistance but that they needed to make sure someone on the other end was always free to help them. So I came up with this idea to get a group of volunteers who could answer a call and help blind and visually impaired users.”

The way that the application works is:

ü  When a user downloads and opens the app. Two options will appear – Sighted or Blind. Volunteers would choose sighted and those who need assistance would choose blind.

ü  You then sign up according to which option suits you – signing up is free

ü  You select which languages you speak and enter your name.

ü  For blind users a button will appear that says ‘Connect to sighted helper’ when they press this a signal is sent from the phone to a server which randomly connects to a sighted helper, who speaks the same language, and if that helper doesn’t pick up within ten seconds the server will reconnect to a different helper.

ü  The blind user then points their camera towards the item they need assistance with e.g a microwave ready meal then the sighted helper will guide the user until what they are looking for comes into frame e.g. how long to put the meal in the microwave. 

The Royal National Institute Of Blind People released a press release on this app, which says:

“For blind and partially sighted people who use a smartphone, Be My Eyes is an important and innovative new development which could make a big difference to their lives. This is another example of an accessible app which has a really practical benefit for people with sight loss, and at RNIB, we’re particularly supportive of initiatives which find new ways to help people complete everyday tasks such as cooking and shopping.”

 

However, there have been concerns raised about possible privacy breaches i.e blind users showing confidential documents to the helpers but Hans added:

“The blind user should only use this app for assistance with sensible things”

Currently the app is only available to download, for free, on the apple iPhone Store however, there are plans to extend the use to other Android markets. Funding is only secured until September 2015 after which subscriptions may be introduced or donations could be requested from users to keep the application running.

At the time this article was written Be My Eyes had 135,000 volunteers registered to help the blind and visually impaired. There were 12,400 blind users and 38,600 people helped through the app.

To listen to a demonstration of how this app works, visit http://orbis.uina.org.uk/