New smartphone app lets the blind see

New smartphone app leaves the blind „see“

01/20/2015

A new free app for smartphones can help visually impaired people, too „see“. By video chat, they can connect with sighted people who can help them in tricky life situations, such as the distinction of products in the supermarket.

Help of the sighted
With the new free smartphone app „Be My Eyes“ People with visual impairment or the blind can get help from sighted people. The application allows users to connect to a sighted person via video chat. This potential helper sees the environment of the blind and can help him in tricky life situations, for example, in the distinction of products in the supermarket or when reading bus timetables.

Users connected via video chat
According to the information, the app has already been tested in Denmark for several months and is now to be marketed worldwide. As it is on the website of „Be my eyes“ means that around 1,500 blind and over 17,800 seers have voluntarily registered for the app. The helpers can indicate in their profile which languages ​​they speak and the blind can rate the sighted ones after a video call with a point system. Currently the app is only available for iOS, in the future will be followed by an Android version. The idea for the app comes from the visually impaired Hans Jørgen Wiberg. She has implemented the Danish non-profit organization Robocat, which is funded by donations.

Sense of many health apps is questionable
Although this is not the first app that can help many people in a straightforward way, it is rightly hailed by the Net Community as a particularly innovative invention. According to experts, there are already more than 15,000 health-related apps on the market, many of which are chargeable. You can find among others, blood pressure monitor, pain diary, pills alarm clock or nutrition guide. Experts say that it is questionable in many apps, whether they can actually be used effectively as a medical aid. (Ad)

Picture: Cristine Lietz