[Trainer-Talk] an article about BlindSquare

Fri Oct 16 13:39:59 UTC 2015

Thanks, David. That means a lot coming from you. The thing is, I hate writing!  And I feel like I don't have the time. I am amazed by people like you that write things all the time. I do try to email things out here and there when I think they are really important. And I do hope some day to have a website with my training materials posted on it. I just can't seem to ever really get caught up enough to do extra stuff like that. Something really neat has come out of this article. The developer of Blindsquare is going to try to get those iBeacons and Blindsquare Event set up at the AER Conference coming up in Norfolk in a few weeks. There will be a lot of orientation and mobility trainers there, and most importantly, a lot of people from the VA. I could see the VA really making a difference in getting these iBeacons used in the United States. 

Julie Adkins
Assistive Technology Trainer

> On Oct 15, 2015, at 10:42 PM, David Goldfield via Trainer-Talk <trainer-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> This was a great piece, Julie. I reposted it to my local computer users' group list. When this gets posted, could you send me the URL as I'd like to tweet it and post it on some LinkedIn groups, if that's OK.
> Also, have you considered starting your own blog? You have a lot of knowledge, are a good writer and have a lot of enthusiasm, which is a great combination to be a good blogger.
> 
> David Goldfield,
> Assistive Technology Specialist
> 
> Feel free to visit my Web site
> www.davidgoldfield.info
> 
>> On 10/15/2015 11:33 AM, Julie Adkins via Trainer-Talk wrote:
>> This is trainer Julie Adkins.  I finally bought BlindSquare and was so
>> impressed that I wrote this article.  I have just gotten in contact with the
>> developers (to tell them how awesome their app is), and one of them said he
>> will try to get iBeacons set up at the AER conference in Norfolk coming up
>> November 4-6.  It is not definite yet.  If you haven't seen BlindSquare in
>> action with iBeacons, there is a link in the article to a YouTube video
>> showing a lady independently navigating in a mall.
>> 
>>  
>>  
>> The article begins below.
>> 
>>  
>> If you are an independent traveler, or you like to have control over
>> planning your route and finding places around you, I just can't say enough
>> good things about an app called BlindSquare.  Okay, it costs $30.00.  So,
>> you may ask, why would I want to spend $30.00 on an app if my phone has a
>> GPS app built in, and I can just ask Siri to give me directions wherever I
>> want to go?  First of all, it finds many more places than your iPhone does.
>> This is because behind the scenes it uses data that has been input by
>> thousands of users of a very popular app called Four Square. Secondly, the
>> app makes it extremely easy to find places to go and things to do (these are
>> called "Points of Interest" or POIs in GPS apps).  Everything is broken down
>> into categories, like Food, Arts and Entertainment, Nightlife spots,
>> Outdoors and Recreation, and Shop and Service, and then each category has a
>> list of subcategories of things as specific as Afghan Food, or Falafel
>> Restaurant (in Food), or Shoe Repair or ATMs (in Shop and Service).  You can
>> just read through the list of places in each category to see what is
>> available, or have it announce the places to you as you are walking or
>> riding. If you need directions, you can ask it to give you directions to
>> your destination through the built in Maps app, Google maps, or several
>> other popular navigation apps, such as Wav, TomTom, and Navigon. You can
>> even order an Uber ride from right within the app.
>> 
>>   
>> If you are walking or riding and having BlindSquare announce Points of
>> Interest to you as you go, you can use a filter to narrow it down to just
>> the information you want to hear.  The example they give is that you want to
>> go shopping for clothes, but you don't know which shops you want to visit.
>> You would ask BlindSquare to only tell you places in the Shop and Service
>> category as you are walking through the city (and of course then you could
>> even narrow it down to one of the subcategories if you wish, like clothing
>> store).  Or maybe have it only look for Food if you are looking for
>> restaurants.  And, of course, you could just search for a specific place if
>> you know exactly where you want to go, or have it search within a specific
>> distance.  Easily save places to your Favorites so you can find them again
>> quickly.  You can even simulate a trip from a certain spot so you can find
>> out in advance what will be around you when you go somewhere, preplan your
>> routes for when you will be there, and so on.
>> 
>>  
>> You can ask Blind Square to tell you what points of interest (including
>> intersections) are around you within a certain radius, and you get to choose
>> the radius.  It even has a feature called Look Around that allows you to
>> point your phone in a direction and find out what is located in that
>> particular direction (again, you get to choose the distance).  Just shake
>> the phone to exit this Look Around mode.  When you are walking, you can also
>> just shake the phone to find out where you are.  You can even leave your
>> ears open to listen to traffic and other sounds in the environment by using
>> bone conducting head phones.  No, I didn't realize there was such a thing,
>> either.  Apparently they have been in use by walkers and joggers for quite
>> some time.  There is a link within the BlindSquare app to find them on
>> Amazon.  It appears they range from about $50 to $150, depending on their
>> features, such as battery life and sound quality.  I would imagine you would
>> want to be sure they are wireless (Bluetooth).
>> 
>>  
>> If you want to read about all the features Blindsquare has to offer (yes,
>> there are more!), you can find the help file on the internet at
>> https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1Rz0w2tRq0uAVx9DQ0hpyVCX9G3c8IundPnz
>> ksTI1nVQ.  Also check out this YouTube video of a blind person walking
>> around by herself in a mall to see how it can work indoors with devices
>> called iBeacons that transmit information about the person's location as he
>> or she walks by: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jH-Bdjmgb4.  No, sorry,
>> these iBeacons are not set up in your local mall. But this shows what is
>> possible for independent travel in the future.  The video has dialogue in
>> another language, so if you use a screen reader, be sure it is set to read
>> captions.  There are other videos about BlindSquare on YouTube-just be sure
>> they are in English.
>> 
>>  
>> If you want to try BlindSquare out without buying it, they have a demo
>> version called Blindsquare Event that is free. You can't use it to get
>> around in your environment (it is not going to connect to any GPS apps), but
>> it lets you try out its other features as if you are located in places like
>> Times Square in New York or Big Ben in London.
>> 
>> When the app opens, choose the option for Demo, and then choose the
>> simulated location you want to explore.
>> 
>>  
>> Julie Adkins
>> 
>> Assistive Technology Trainer
>> 
>>  
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