Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Help needed for a new app for the blind (self.Blind)
submitted by gi097
Hello,
Since I have a blind brother, I am creating a free mobile application for iOS which will help blind people in traffic. It will use the camera to scan real life objects and tell the user if there are obstacles. It will also tell the user if any sidewalks are found. The project is called BlindAssist.
I am looking for blind people who want to help me and give ideas. I already have a part of the app running, but I will need testers.
Please comment below if you did like to contribute or if you have any questions.
Below is a YouTube video which has some inference results spoken out loud:
$1
​
Since I have a blind brother, I am creating a free mobile application for iOS which will help blind people in traffic. It will use the camera to scan real life objects and tell the user if there are obstacles. It will also tell the user if any sidewalks are found. The project is called BlindAssist.
I am looking for blind people who want to help me and give ideas. I already have a part of the app running, but I will need testers.
Please comment below if you did like to contribute or if you have any questions.
Below is a YouTube video which has some inference results spoken out loud:
$1
​
Marconius 8 points 4y ago
So the idea is that I'd have to hold my phone out one-handed oriented to face the horizon and listen to it at the same time as using my cane, listening to cross and parallel traffic and other pedestrians during a crossing? I don't want someone to grab my phone out of my hands when walking around a city. The walk right and left commands are very vague, do they mean turn? Walk 45 degrees? Sidestep? What is the distance of the holes/obstacles?
Think about how blind people navigate and take in their surroundings. Our canes will find most ground obstacles and we have training and practice for street crossings. Rather than holding my camera up each time I'm making a crossing, how about an app that details out the crossing beforehand? Traffic direction, active lanes, parking lanes, if curb cuts are in cardinal directions or angled out into the intersection, if the intersection and crossings are square or at an odd angle, if there is a safer crossing with a beacon closer to my destination rather than the crossing I'm approaching. That all would be very useful when used in conjunction with Map turn-by-turn directions. Fiddling with a camera and listening to a phone will make street crossings much more dangerous and having to hold a phone while just walking on the street takes away the use of my free hand, hindering my safety and mobility should I encounter something my cane or the app misses.
Think about how blind people navigate and take in their surroundings. Our canes will find most ground obstacles and we have training and practice for street crossings. Rather than holding my camera up each time I'm making a crossing, how about an app that details out the crossing beforehand? Traffic direction, active lanes, parking lanes, if curb cuts are in cardinal directions or angled out into the intersection, if the intersection and crossings are square or at an odd angle, if there is a safer crossing with a beacon closer to my destination rather than the crossing I'm approaching. That all would be very useful when used in conjunction with Map turn-by-turn directions. Fiddling with a camera and listening to a phone will make street crossings much more dangerous and having to hold a phone while just walking on the street takes away the use of my free hand, hindering my safety and mobility should I encounter something my cane or the app misses.
gi097 [OP] 1 points 4y ago
Thanks a lot for your reply! Well, yes, that is not really what I did think about in the first place. I think the most exciting thing for me is the fact that I made a phone being able to recognize environment by the camera.
Instead of holding the camera in your hand, I was thinking of some sort of bag or separate camera to let the inference work without having to hold the camera in one of your hands.
Tracking traffic direction and the other ideas you mentioned are a really good idea which I didn't think about, I will definitely try to find a way in how to recognize it. Thanks a lot!
Instead of holding the camera in your hand, I was thinking of some sort of bag or separate camera to let the inference work without having to hold the camera in one of your hands.
Tracking traffic direction and the other ideas you mentioned are a really good idea which I didn't think about, I will definitely try to find a way in how to recognize it. Thanks a lot!
Marconius 4 points 4y ago
Don't get so focused on the tech that you lose sight of the overall task you are trying to accomplish. It's cool that you are utilizing the camera to call out and identify things, but step back and consider the actual utility v& usability of what you are trying to do. Have you asked your brother what he'd want in the app? Or considered how he'd be expected to use it? Start there and identify the uses before putting tons of work into the tech, since it will then become more of a technical puzzle for you to learn and solve which will make you feel great when you tackle it, only to be crushed when no one wants to use it or physically can't use it due to how they travel when out and about. Think accessibility and usability from the start, don't expect to add it in later once you get the tech working.
gi097 [OP] 1 points 4y ago
Very well explained. Thanks. I will try to do something with your feedback.
rkingett 4 points 4y ago
My cane can tell me all of this information, but I would like details of the cross walks. Are the curb cuts slanted? That kind of thing. The below comment said it best.
gi097 [OP] 1 points 4y ago
Thanks a lot for your input. I will defenitely work on it!
enzwificritic 2 points 4y ago
so is the app like microsoft's seeing AI for ios?
gi097 [OP] 1 points 4y ago
Not really, while it has some common features, it focuses on traffic environments.
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