stopping a taxi or bus with iPhone

No need for an app really. All you need to do is write down the bus numbers or ask the driver if you got the info from the dispatcher why his cab number is and if they do not tell you don't get in the car and don't get on the wrong bus. I've been traveling like this for years and it's helped me a lot.

I am not a developer, but I theoretically could benefit from such an app if it was ever developed. But I wouldn't want it, because it would make the process ten times harder than it needs to be. As great as it would be to have an app that could identify taxis and busses, I think it is unrealistic. It would require precise positioning of the device's camera and the perfect picture to be taken to identify such things as bus numbers, etc. The development process would also probably be very time-consuming--to say the least--and the app would likely have a lot of issues with accuracy. It would introduce a whole new layer of complexity to the task at hand, and there are just too many variables to try to account for--at least as I see it. While I know you mentioned feeling uncomfortable, I still think the best solution is to advocate for yourself and ask for the assistance you need. In my experience, people are usually happy to help. Trying to get an app to do these kinds of things would, in my opinion, not be a worthwhile use of development resources and would ultimately leave you high and dry if your phone was malfunctioning, etc.

Plus, we cannot constantly rely on our electronics. If we do and they die we are back to square 1. Even the sighted ask for help and I've like I said have traveled for years around the world and I find no hindrance of asking for help, except whenI speak the language. I agree with all the posters that this is unrealistic and hope it never happens as I like to do things with out the use of apps if at all possible. . Happy tuesday.

sure you can make an app for hailing a cab easily, it needs only two functions: 1) make a loud whistle sound. the only way to whistle loudly is to put a finger in my mouth, sometime i don't want to do that because my fingers aren't particularly clean. 2) simulate a cab light, like the ones you see in front of big apartment complexes. how do you tell private cars from taxies? well, instead of hustling every car drives by, you can just turn on your cab light and wait. i think it's not a difficult app to write. if someone were to make it available, i would buy it.

In some cities buses have a voiceover system that speaks the bus number and the stops. I have never been friend of that cards in which there is a bus number o "Taxi" word written on it, i prefer to ask someone.

I think that scanning buses may be a little bite complex now. You can however install gps on bus and cabs and make then update their position, so you know where they are and when they arrive. This concept is used in software such as 99 taxy or easy taxy, where you call a taxy and you have the driver's phone back and the driver may have your facebook foto, so you can ask him or her to warn you when it arrives * privacy, precision and eficiency are guaranteed. Marlon

I do not think such a scanning app would do us any good or solve any major problems. Besides time and money could go into developing things that would be much more useful, not to mention practical and easy. I mean I love the idea that I can use my phone to see whats in my cabinet with apps like tap tap see, but even a task as simple as that can be frustrating and take a little time.

I think though the skill should be taught and implemented. Also, as someone pointed out, the camera for the phones is not all that good and the numbers on the taxi and busses need to be placed in the same location all the time. I don't think they are especially now that the service uber is now playing an important part of drivers and giving you rides as well. so in this case I don't think an app would be feasible or practical, not yet. good luck.

Vash, With all due respect, what's wrong with asking someone for assistance if you need it...especially if doing so is the easiest way to get something done? Blind and sighted people alike have to ask for help. It is something I struggled with for a long time, not wanting to call attention to myself. But I've found, as I do more independent travel, that part of being independent is recognizing when I do need assistance and asking for what I need.

Would an app that lets one know where busses and taxis are be useful for some? Yes it would. But hear is my main problem with such an app. An app that would rely on one taking pictures seems to assume that to perform the desired task one must do so in the same way a sighted person does. In other words it seems to be coming from the perspective of a sighted person. The issue is not that we can't see the vehicles the issue is that we do not know where they are. To try and solve this issue with an app that is based on visual means is not a good idea for several reasons. What you should instead concentrate on is things such as GPS systems that could be in busses and taxis that would tell you where they are. This is a very practical much more useful means to solve the problem not to mention that it would help everyone, not just blind people. From what I understand the busses at my university already have such a system, I never ride them so I can't be sure. Why would you want to try and randomly wave your phone around to hope to catch a glimpse of what cars are around you when you could pull out your phone and see the exact location of every buss in the whole city, how far away they are, which one is the closest and when that buss will arrive. This kind of thing is only a matter of time because its something sighted people want to. For us to spend time and money for the kind of app your describing that would only give us access to what sighted people have now. If we had what I am describing it would give us access that sighted people can only dream of. Someone mentioned some crazy camera gizmo thing that reads the sines of stores so you can know which ones are around you. Well once again that is a very silly solution to a problem, that seems to assume that sight is the only way to fix things. There is an app right now that we all know of called blind square that will tell you which stores are around you. and you don't have to take a picture of anything. Just like the GPS app I described when talking about busses blind square offers more access then that camera thing ever could because I can use blind square to see what is across town. not just right in front of me. and as far as malls and inside places things like Ibeacon will solve those issues. And thats because Ibeacon offers a service that can help everyone, not just blind people. So once again I can understand that the problem you are talking about is a real one. If you want to hale a cab and don't want to ask for assistance it can be tricky. but the way you are suggesting to fix the problem just doesn't make a lot of since. In the comment above mine you say you just want an app that would distinguish between taxis busses and cars. Well I can't help with taxis but as far as busses thats easy. Maybe its different in Israel but at least hear in the states busses almost always have their motor in the back. This means its pretty easy to distinguish between them and most other vehicles just by the way they sound.

That might not work as it is not protected from wind and a cit rain. Also not all cab companies might not want to do that, and you can make that and put it on your car, full people and con them. gain not advisable.

Well however we feel about this idea we can all agree that we want independence. Technology allows us to do things nobody could do twenty years ago. Before the internet blind people would have given anything to be able to access public libraries and now I have more books at my finger tips then any sighted person would have without the web. Although I will never have some her like robot telling me where to go. Just saying.

Hello. Clearly you're shooting steam out of your ears. I never once thought the original poster's idea was wrong, simply impractical, and in your viewing of the futuristic nation you're providing, I concur my original statement. You have us probably flying those Jetson's cars and having robot dogs bringing in the newspaper. I'm a pretty good read of character,so yes i'm comfortable asking strangers for help if I need it. I do not have access to the Egypt app store, I'm asking if you have. If you are aware that yes this person is telling the truth and there are no bus or taxi aps, as i gave examples in earlier postings, then absolutely there should be one. But there is still impracticality when it comes to just how you do it. So yes, I took humor int he fact you are designing a fictitious situation where we just point the phone somewhere to do what we need too. GPS is vastly different in that you're in an unknown area and it's guiding you, not telling you what to do. You can choose to "recalculate." or even ignore it altogether. I still stand by my statement. Does that mean I ask a stranger to read a menu that I didn't get a chance to peruse before leaving home? Certainly not. I'm simply going to agree to disagree, this is my last word on the topic. I don't see why you got so angry, but then again, I'm not a god person, so I don't beleieve in that. Have a good day.

This sounds like an excellent idea. Maybe the app can be blue tooth, and have the bus and cab companies register so when they are aproaching you get a notification. After the notification the app could ask if you want to stop the vehicle or let it keep going.

Vash, I don't have all the answers. If this level of technification of your life would work for you, that's good, because it ultimately is about how independent you can be with the tools that are available to you. But, just as you reminded us earlier, it would not be accurate to assume that just because this sort of app usage style would work for you that it would also work for everyone else on the site. I know that such an app as originally was being discussed will probably not work for me, and it appears as though I am not alone in this viewpoint. At the end of the day, I have a real issue with the false hope that waiting for future technology can instill. I have heard this for years: "The technology will be here in ten or twenty years." That does not help me right now, and if I sit around waiting for everything I want to be made possible through technology...it will be a really, really long wait. I want my college textbooks in accessible formats automatically. I want a GPS app so accurate that it can tell me the house numbers on residential streets as I pass the houses in realtime. But we're just not there yet, and it is what it is. I personally feel that one should do their best with what they have, and if the resources come along at some point in time, great. If they don't, well, I won't have wasted my time hoping for it.

I think a couple of the things we need to remember is that the original poster is from a different country from most of the rest of us. However, the other thing we need to remember is that the difference is not only regional, but cultural. I don't know much about his culture, but I do know that different societies have very different opinions of blindness and the functions blind people can and should have in society. These kinds of things can cause issues when getting assistance. That being said, I am in agreement that we should use what we have available if we can, not sit on our duffs waiting, but think we should be a little more sensative when discussing independence, because culture can be a huge factor.

Just wanted to mention that there is nothing private about haling a taxi or bus. I remember the days when I just wanted to do everything on my own without any help or companionship. In truth there is nothing private when one is standing on a public street. The way one walks, stands, the facial expressions clothing and random food stains one chooses to wear that day are on display for every sighted person to notice or ignore as they choose. And trust me a blind person, no matter how discrete he or she is trying to be will catch everyone's notice. And if you are lucky enough to be one of those blind people that sighted people want to help, then count your blessings. I was complaining about sighted assistance to an instructor of the blind and he advised me that there are some people he has trained that have trouble getting the assistance they need even when they ask for it. Good luck and I do really hope this app you want comes out some day because it will put us one step closer to artificial sight. I'm almost looking forward to getting my visor just like Jordy from Star Treck!

Oh are you by chance talking about the brain port? I know several friends who have been in clinical tests and they say it has a long way to go, but yeah. For me to be able to maybe, just maybe, read a printed page of music with that thing would be awesome. I can't sing any of it unless the sensor would be small enough for me to sing with it in my mouth and have good diction

And it would probably do a lot more like tell you in plenty of lite of corse what bus number is on the side etc etc. I would not how ever give up my cane or braille skills as what if the battery goes dead. or what not.

First with busses in Chicago and L what we call train, when you are waiting on the bus stop when it stop in front of you, you can hear name of bus and where it is going. Same with the train. Taxi if they had a radio signal that an app can pick up and tell you there is a taxi close to you so you can do like all sighted people do when they see just say very loud TAXI. Hope they hear you and stop.

Most culture do not want to deal with those who have a mental illness or are disable. The old saying works for them. Out of sight, out of mind. What you do not see, you do not feel. Lucky for me that I live in Chicago, we have great public transp and the city is perfect for blind people. A big square where streets go north, south, east and west with some diagonal.

Agreed. The idea is not stupid at all,all, but it is not practical. I always ask for help even though I hate it and feel like i'm going to vomit every time. But I have no choice. I'll do that raather trhan rely on an iphoen app for this.