[Njtechdiv] Exciting iPhone App
Mario
mrb620 at hotmail.com
Fri May 15 22:43:27 UTC 2015
MD Support’s LowViz Guide Offers Gift of Sight
For four days, Bill DeMaio could see through walls. And that’s really
saying something, considering that he has no eyesight. Until May 10,
2015, Bill could find his way around an unfamiliar building only by
either asking people for directions or hoping to find Braille signs. But
then, on the first day of the 2015 National ADA Symposium, he was given
an extraordinary gift of sight.
Bill was the first person to use a new wayfinding application called
LowViz Guide, created specifically for visually impaired attendees at
state and national conferences. On the first day of the event, he stood
with his guide dog, Izaac, in the middle of the Hyatt Regency Atlanta
hotel’s pre-conference area. Neither of them had ever set foot or paw in
that room before, but after simply listening to his iPhone for a minute
or so, Bill was amazed that he could describe and give directions to
meeting rooms, restrooms, vendor booths, and other unique points of
interest in the entire conference area, even those that were beyond
normal sight.
Once he realized that he was now on equal or better par with the
fully-sighted attendees, he decided to sign in. Turning toward the
registration table
50 feet away and around the corner, he guided Izaac to the exact
location. That’s right, Bill guided Izaac, whose look of canine
bewilderment was matched only by the big smile on his owner’s face.
LowViz Guide is the latest embodiment of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
beacon technology, popping up in public venues all over the world. It is
similar to GPS, but it is useable indoors, where access to satellites,
Internet, and cell service may not be available. With a smart phone or
tablet, the user can call up a map and routing information on the
screen, no matter where he or she is standing in the venue. And now, in
combination with the phone’s speech capability, that information is also
available audibly for blind and low vision people.
In July of 2014, Liz Trauernicht, director of MD Foundation, saw the
need for a guided assistance program at low vision conferences, so she
asked her resource consultant, Dan Roberts, if he could research the
possibilities. Along with his duties as founding director of MD Support
and Editor-in-Chief of Prevent Blindness’ Living Well With Low Vision
section, Roberts accepted the challenge. He decided that BLE technology
was the answer, so he contracted Indoo.rs, a wayfinding technology
company based in Vienna, to design the LowViz Guide app to his
specifications.
After months of development, the product was launched to rave reviews at
the Atlanta conference. And, with ongoing funding from MD Foundation, MD
Support is providing it free-of-charge to five more conventions through
October. Future participating organizations are American Council of the
Blind, Association for Blinded Veterans, Guide Dogs For The Blind,
California Council of the Blind, and Pennsylvania Council of the Blind.
For information about LowViz Guide and how to request it for events, visit
www.mdsupport.org/audioguide.
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