Description of App
BlindSquare makes you sense what's around you. The only thing you need to do is listen.
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?”
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.
Comments
blindsquare crashing
not a bad app
We need to solve this
Intersections
intersections
Clff's problem solved
blind square crashing language and voice
comments on the app crashing
There is workarond
Workaround
Workaround is not working
I installed this app earlier
Thank you for your update
Looking forward to it and I
Language voice
Demo voices are included in the app
oh, thanks guys; Now I feel
Version 1.41
What's New in Version 1.41
NEW: You can now start simulation mode on each Place Description Screen. Simulation mode lets you pretend that you are at the place you have selected and lets you use all of BlindSquare's features as if you really were at the place. Perform searches, category searches, or use Look Around to familiarize yourself with a new place and plan your trip. You will hear a slight background noise so you always know when you are in simulation mode. Use the End Simulation button in the Tools menu to exit simulation mode.
NEW: The list of search results now also shows the Foursquare subcategory of each place (only in English, German, Spanish, Italian, and French)
NEW: When you perform a category search, you will now also see the list of Foursquare subcategories on the search result screen. The list has a heading so you can flick down to quickly navigate to this list if your rotor is set to headings. Double-Tap any subcategory to perform a search for places in this subcategory.
NEW: Context sensitive help through VoiceOver hints now also available in Italian
NEW: Support for MotionX-GPS HD
CHANGE: Searching for an address can now yield several results.
CHANGE: Intersections are announced a bit closer to the intersection than in previous versions
CHANGE: When you view the Place Description Screen of a favorited place, its data is refreshed from Foursquare
CHANGE: In Look Around, intersections are read before places
CHANGE: Shaking device stops Look around
CHANGE: Acapela voice and VoiceOver voice work better together
FIX: When you favorite a place, it now appears in your My Places list instantly, restarting BlindSquare is no longer necessary.
FIX: Shake to check in to Foursquare places works again
FIX: Norwegian version no longer crashes
FIX: Hungarian translation corrections
Looking for a podcast.
1.41, Virtual Look-around
Podcast will be available soon
"Introduction to BlindSquare 1.41" podcast is available
how exciting! I'm going to
Hint for shaking
Ah OK thanks for that; I
Traveling by bus
When you travel fas
yes, and you do hear what
I suggest
I was so impressed last night
Current status of BlindSquare
Ah I did realize this. I'm
I'm impressed
Strentgh of GPS signal
It's not easily accessible
Version 1.42
German app instructions / Deutsche App-Erklärung bzw. Beschreibu
We in Germany use this App, too. Here ist a german description for this app.
BlindSquare Navigation fĂĽr Blinde und Sehbehinderte
German podcast
BlindSquare update version 1.43
Version 1.44
This is one of the bigger update to date. There are almost a dozen NEW features in this update alone. With so many great enhancement to the app. Very well done!
What's New in Version 1.44
NEW: If Google Maps is not installed on your device, it is suggested as a navigational app when you use the Plan a Route feature. (Google Maps is free and offers spoken turn-by-turn directions to guide you to your destination)
NEW: If Background operation of BlindSquare is not enabled, it will be activated once you launch a 3rd party navigation application by pressing "Plan a route"
NEW: If Background operation of BlindSquare is not enabled, BlindSquare will still remain active when you lock the screen. You can close BlindSquare by pressing the Home button.
CHANGE: If Background operation of BlindSquare is not enabled, BlindSquare will never activate sleep mode automatically. You can always shut it down yourself by pressing the Home button to close it.
NEW: Listening to podcasts, music or audiobooks is now enabled. If you use Apple's Music app, it will pause automatically when BlindSquare starts speaking and resume again after the message. If you use different players, playback continues in the background and you will have to use the iOS music controller to stop playback
NEW: Look Around now indicates each direction using sound effects
NEW: Starting and stopping Look Around and Tracking is indicated by sound effects
NEW: Look Around will first announce the places on your My Places list
NEW: Look Around will now inform you if it does not find anything in the specified direction within your selected radius
NEW: When your GPS accuracy changes, your new accuracy is announced
NEW: When using "Plan a route", 3rd party navigation application defaults to the one previously used
NEW: When using "Plan a route", BlindSquare will also track the place to help you finding it when you approach it
CHANGE: The "Your location changed too fast." error message is now announced less often
now BlindSquare and google maps works together What's new in 1.4
problems with settings
Check that you have iCloud activated
holding the phone
re icloud
iCloud
I believe that the cloud is the future
Hi, Cloud might be the
iCloud has always local copy
Answers