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
Version 1.12 released
What's New in Version 1.12
Version 1.14 released
A new update has just been released. I've not had an opportunity to take it for a test drive yet, but some of the new features look good:
What's New in Version 1.14
New version
New update
Ghost BlindSquare Website
App support is via Google Groups
BlindSquare GPS Very Annoying And Disappointing
Somewhat disappointing Experience With Blindsquare, Latest versi
I've read all available post and information before and after my purchase of Blindsquare. First, I have not been able to turn off that most intrusive voice which insists on tromping all over that of voiceover. There is often unwanted interference from Miss SilverTongue when I'm exploring the screen. Next, seems that many developers of GPS have lots of money to spend on their programs constantly eating up cell air time by not downloading maps specific to the area, even though they have asked, and I have accepted, using my location. So, in order to get help, I have to subscribe to yet another social group? If these situations don't change, I will be asking for a refund from apple, more on principal than the small abount of money involved which I'd much rather give to applivis for the excellent website. Contrary to what I have read bout navigon, I find the buttons totally accessible and that review will be entered separately.
Hello! I'm developer of
Thanks for feedback
Flat rate
Despite Earlier Comments, Truly awesome potential
newbie
Sorry, I didn't read the
Sorry, I didn't read the deveopper's comment answering my question I also had about the maps. Is there any reason why we can't store maps on the phone? We could download the ones we'll be using only to reserve space; that'd be awesome.
Disapearing of BS can be changed from settings
How to get to POI
Caching
I've been wanting to purchase this
Almost that and more
sharing places
thank you!
Shared places are via FourSquare
Recording a route would be safer
recording a route is a good idea but...
Recording a route
problem with openning category menues
gps accuracy
gps accuracy reply
Despite Everything, programmer(s) Totally Awesome And Brilliant!
Ah OK thanks for that Daz,
Very Disappointed with the Accuracy
Is there restaurants within selected radius?
1.15 fixes issue with imperial rounding
DIsapearing can be fixed
FourSquare Checkins Don't Post to Twitter
Would you like to be able to posti checkins to FB and Twitter?
posting to fb and twiter
I am not hearing
Not everything works via VO
1.16 will allow posting to Twitter and FB
Version 1.15 released
Lots of interesting new features in the latest update:
What's New in Version 1.15NEW FEATURE: FourSquare checkin stops trackingNEW FEATURE: Support for Navigon, TomTom and Google turn-by-turn navigation
NEW FEATURE: Faster way to stop tracking (Tools / Stop Tracking)
NEW FEATURE: Last 30 places mentioned can be browsed from Tools/Recent Places
NEW FEATURE: New page for FourSquare check in + starting/stopping tracking or navigation. Includes address, twitter, link to menu, distance, direction and phone number
NEW FEATURE: If place published phone number in 4sq, you can make a call
NEW FEATURE: If place published twitter account in 4sq, you can open their feed
NEW FEATURE: If place published menu in 4sq, you can take a look at it
NEW FEATURE: Shouting is enabled when doing foursquare check in
NEW FEATURE: Distance Unit can be changed (default is read from iOS settings)
NEW FEATURE: Possibility to set more exact location to FourSquare venues. Corrected locations are saved to iCloud, so they affect to all of your devices.
CHANGE: When doing check in with shake gesture, places with corrected location are prioritized
FIX: Rounding error fixed with imperial distances
FIX: Street number is announced when reporting your address
FIX: italian translation typos fixed
FIX: Directions are announced correctly with different device orientations (landscape, upside down etc.). Device still must be facing screen backwards.
FIX: If shake-to-checkin is disabled it's not announced anymore
CHANGE: street crossing announcement in bus ride has more information of surroundings
The Genius of Blindsquare listens!!!
Turn-by-turn step-by-step
Hi. Does turning your wifi on
Accuracy of GPS with wifi
gps accuracy and new feature suggestions
1.16 will go with GPS
I need your opinion
Prefer suggestions 2 and 5
I hope Apple will fix scrub gesture