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
A POI is on the Foursquare app but not on Blindsquare app
I have been adding a couple POI's around me and I noticed a couple showed on the Foursquare app and not on the Blindsquare app. Anybody had this happen to them? anybody know why and how to fix it? Nobody' is probably going to check in to my POI's so they won't pop up in the Blindsquare app though. But, you never know. I know I can always add them as a favourite...
question about an exploration feature I don't see
Hi all, wondering if any blind square users might be able to help with a feature I am looking for in blind square but can't find anywhere maybe its been removed I don't know.
anyway I am sure there used to be a way you could bring up like a virtual map of either your current location or a simulated area, then run your finger over the map and you would hear like a walking sound and things would be announced on the map as your finger came to them. I can picture myself using this feature but can't find it. I am sure it wasn't another gps app that I used. any help would be appreciated.
Ariadne GPS
The feature you’re describing sounds like a different app called Ariadne GPS. I don’t remember the feature ever being in BlindSquare.
RE: 306
as the previous post said, it was a different GPS app that had that feature. While you can simulate a different location in BlindSquare, you can't run your hand across a map to figure out what's around it. That would be a cool feature to have, though.
Hi all, I actually figured
Hi all, I actually figured out the feature I was thinking of, as it turned out it wasn't Ariadne gps I was thinking of. the feature is where you can hold your finger on a street name after bringing it up on the map, and as you move your finger you hear a low thud sound as you follow the street. though I had to do quite a bit of scrolling on the blindsquare help to find the feature description.
Life changing app
Hello everyone. I have used this app to get myself out of sticky situations. I have been successfully able to walk to a walmart in a small town where a friend of mine lives. Also there was one time when an uber driver had dropped me off at a wrong apartment a few years ago and this app was able to get me back to the right apartment. This app is seriously one of the best and I"m so thankful for it!!!! The best money an IOS user could ever spend.
what is the price
what is the price of this app?
sale on blind square
Hi, is there any chance this could go on sale? it would help me to be able to purchase it.
Anyone still using this nowadays?
I remember it used to be all over any blindwest related news and there were even a few good podcasts. Is the API and such still working.
Yes, the app is still…
Yes, the app is still working and there have been a few small updates recently.
Every time I open the app,…
Every time I open the app, it kicks me back out to the home screen of my iPhone. Anyone else having this issue?