LONDON: A smartphone app can be a blessing in disguise to the visually-impaired people. As a newly launched iOS app, Be My Eyes is helping around the blind people in various day to day tasks.
“Blind users can request help from a sighted person and the sighted users will then be called for help. As soon as the first sighted user accepts the request for help a live audio-video connection will be set up between the two and the sighted user can tell the blind person what she sees when the blind user points his phone at something using the rear-facing camera,” the developers says.
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“As a sighted user you don’t need to worry about missing a call and ‘leave a blind person hanging’ you are a part of the bigger Be My Eyes helper-network and we will find the next available sighted person in the network. The challenges that the blind person needs help with can be anything from knowing the expiry date on the milk to navigating new surroundings.”
The app is available free for download and install through the App Store. It connects the visually impaired user to a sighted executive, which uses the device’s camera and the speaker to communicate. Users can ask for the daily routine tasks such as counting money, choosing an outfit or browsing the web.
“Most people who are visually-impaired are getting really excited because they are discovering that it’s really not that difficult to browse the web and communicate via e-mail anymore, thanks to this technology,” Jeffrey Berman, a specialist with the Central Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, US, was quoted as saying.
Till date, nearly 230,000 sighted people are helping around 19,000 visually-impaired users through the app. “We just need more people to volunteer as sighted guides, and then it could be an incredible app,” Berman further added.
