I posted a first impression of the Sunu Band yesterday.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Blind/comments/9iywti/sunu_band_first_impressions/?utm_source=reddit-android

Today I had the chance to try it out in the real world and see how much it helped.

I tried it on my way to work. My route involves a long bus ride and then a 5-ish minute walk with two Street crossings.

When I was waiting for the bus I used it to keep track of the line. It worked very well. Once on the bus I sat back, relaxed, and tried to forget that it was only 6 AM and I was not a morning person.

Once off the bus I started the short walk to the work building. My city has those stupid bicycles and scooters that everyone leaves everywhere without a single care in the world and no I'm not mad about that. What could possibly make you think I hate the people that do that? I have no reason whatsoever. /S

Anyway the band was able to detect the scooters, unfortunately my attempts to navigate around it using only the band were thwarted by a good Samaritan. I was, however, able to find what turned out to be the traffic light pole several feet before my cane did.

After the first crossing I have to travel down a long and very wide sidewalk. It's a good 40 or 50 feet wide and has Palm trees lining the road. I usually walk about 10-15 feet away from the road which would put the trees maybe 5-10 feet to my left. Using the band I was able to maintain a roughly consistent distance from the trees and keep a line that was straight enough to make it all the way to my second crossing.

This is good since it is very easy to veer on such a wide walking area.

After my second crossing it's perhaps 100 feet to my building entrance. I did not find the band helpful in locating the open door.

I made my way through security and into an elevator. Surprisingly it was able to tell me when the elevator doors were open and when they were closed.

Once on my floor I decided to stop by the restroom.

The Room is arranged longways and in two sections. In the section nearest the door there is a wall directly to the left and a set of two sinks a few feet to the right. Passing a dividing wall will lead to the toilets with a row of maybe 5 stalls to the left and several urinals to the right.

Be it due to the confined space or the echoey-ness of the room I was unable to use it at all in there. It buzzed constantly.

I made my way to the office floor. The band was able to find the security door about 2 feet ahead of my cane. Inside I made my way to the break room to deposit my lunch. On my way back out I have to walk down a hallway and then turn left. Just before turning left there is a filing cabinet that my co-workers oh so lovingly put several clones of all over the office floor to store paper records. I do appreciate their maximum use of space. /s.
The band was able to let me know when I had cleared the cabinet without having to slam my cane into it.

Once I was safely sat down at my workstation I began my work day. I found the watch to be rather cumbersome to wear. I could feel it pressing against the upper part of my wrist despite having tightened the band properly (I was able to fit one finger between my arm and the band). It wasn't too bad but it was noticeable.

After work I grabbed me an Uber to head to a doctor's appointment. When I arrived I was able to use the band to find the front door. It was a wide, automatic, sliding glass door. Inside I also used it to figure out where to turn to head into the elevator hall.

Once on my floor I used it to navigate to the check-in desk. There is a long hallway with a wall to the left and windows to the right. There are chairs in front of those windows. I used the band to maintain a good distance from the wall. Along that wall there is a recess of maybe 2 feet where there is a door. I was able to find this recess with the band without much difficulty.

Once inside after the nurse had called me I found the band to be almost entirely useless.

This thing really really doesn't do well in confined spaces and that office definitely was confined in the patient room area.

I was able to use the band to find a spot to set a bag down though. I was already familiar with the layout of the patient rooms. I merely used the band to make sure I didn't crash into anything expensive.

Once I was done there a parent had shown up to drive me home. She brought me unit the parking structure. The band was utterly useless in there. It was very echoey and all I got from the band was garbage.

And that was it for my uses of the band.



So what do I think? Well, my issues with quality still stand. This thing feels like it's from the Dollar Store. There is also an air bubble under the plastic of the watch face. I'm definitely going to be contacting Sunu about it. It's a bump maybe a fraction of a millimeter but when you're swiping your finger on it you notice it. Oh, you notice it and it drives you crazy because you paid $300 for it.

As for usefulness it definitely has it but I'm not sure how useful it really is. What it let me do was helpful but... $300 is a lot to mitigate banging a cane against a cabinet.

Where it was genuinely useful was at the outside of the doctor's office, especially for finding the front door.

Indoors it is fairly useless unless your'e in a high traffic space like an office... or at least one that was designed for high traffic unlike my doctor's office.

It appears to be totally useless in areas with lots of echo. Makes sense since it uses ultrasound.

So after day 1 I think I will continue to use it, but good God the build quality is trash.



T:L;DR Sunu Band is more useful outdoors. Indoors is not so useful. Build quality is crap for how much money you pay.