Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Mobile app that visually impaired people can use to navigate. (youtube.com)
submitted by blindpilotapp
keefklaar 6 points 2y ago
What an absolutely useless and pointless app.
Kerbs and kerb depths, trip hazards, stairs & stair depths, doorways, navigating a crowded room - how can it handle any of these.
From the tutorial "Always be prepared to use your white can to detect objects the app may not have recognised"
So we are supposed to use the app AND cane at the same time?
From your website:
>DOES IT REALLY WORK BETTER THAN A WHITE CANE?
The answer is yes! It's range is double that of a white cane, the fine-tuned vibrations are far more intuitiv
You've never actually met or consulted a blind person have you?
Kerbs and kerb depths, trip hazards, stairs & stair depths, doorways, navigating a crowded room - how can it handle any of these.
From the tutorial "Always be prepared to use your white can to detect objects the app may not have recognised"
So we are supposed to use the app AND cane at the same time?
From your website:
>DOES IT REALLY WORK BETTER THAN A WHITE CANE?
The answer is yes! It's range is double that of a white cane, the fine-tuned vibrations are far more intuitiv
You've never actually met or consulted a blind person have you?
blindpilotapp [OP] 0 points 2y ago
> Curb and curb depths, trip hazards, stairs & stair depths, doorways
The computer vision at the core of the app is remarkably capable at understanding its environment. My small team and I are just scratching the surface of what we can do.
Visual detection (with the camera) is inherently limited by lighting conditions, however a new integrated LiDAR unit (depth sensing with infrared lasers) on the iPhone 12 and future iPhones will solidify the app's ability to detect every kind of obstacle in any kind of condition.
> navigating a crowded room
This is something we're still figuring out.
>From the tutorial "Always be prepared to use your white can to detect objects the app may not have recognised". So we are supposed to use the app AND cane at the same time?
That line was meant as an advisory. The app is not yet ready to be used on its own. Thanks for pointing out the inconsistency in the statements made on the site - that line has been changed.
> You've never actually met or consulted a blind person have you?
We apologize for making it seem like we haven't but we're thankful for you feedback.
The computer vision at the core of the app is remarkably capable at understanding its environment. My small team and I are just scratching the surface of what we can do.
Visual detection (with the camera) is inherently limited by lighting conditions, however a new integrated LiDAR unit (depth sensing with infrared lasers) on the iPhone 12 and future iPhones will solidify the app's ability to detect every kind of obstacle in any kind of condition.
> navigating a crowded room
This is something we're still figuring out.
>From the tutorial "Always be prepared to use your white can to detect objects the app may not have recognised". So we are supposed to use the app AND cane at the same time?
That line was meant as an advisory. The app is not yet ready to be used on its own. Thanks for pointing out the inconsistency in the statements made on the site - that line has been changed.
> You've never actually met or consulted a blind person have you?
We apologize for making it seem like we haven't but we're thankful for you feedback.
keefklaar 1 points 2y ago
My partner looked at your website and noted this from your 'investors' page (which, by the way is completely inaccessible to screen readers since it's a slideshow of images)
White canes:
Get lost or damaged a lot - No.
Are cumbersome - again, No.
Trip others - very, very rarely
Guide dogs are really unreliable - Not even close to being the truth.
Seriously, have you done ANY research at all?
White canes:
Get lost or damaged a lot - No.
Are cumbersome - again, No.
Trip others - very, very rarely
Guide dogs are really unreliable - Not even close to being the truth.
Seriously, have you done ANY research at all?
blindpilotapp [OP] 1 points 2y ago
The content on the investors page was not designed with accessibility in mind. We chose the most user-friendly medium, which happened to be a slideshow of images.
The criticisms of white canes and guide dogs were taken from online polls and personal interactions with visually-impaired people. This is what we found.
The criticisms of white canes and guide dogs were taken from online polls and personal interactions with visually-impaired people. This is what we found.
keefklaar 1 points 2y ago
> The content on the investors page was not designed with accessibility in mind.
Surely a website about a blind orientated product should be 100% accessible to the visually impaired. Hell, a majority of the info is contained in videos.
Basic WCAG compliance should have been at the forefront of the design decisions, considering the target audience.
>The criticisms of white canes and guide dogs were taken from online polls and personal interactions with visually-impaired people.
Whenever someone is posting here about designing yet another navigation app/device, the overwhelming majority of comments say that the cane is fine as it is.
Surely a website about a blind orientated product should be 100% accessible to the visually impaired. Hell, a majority of the info is contained in videos.
Basic WCAG compliance should have been at the forefront of the design decisions, considering the target audience.
>The criticisms of white canes and guide dogs were taken from online polls and personal interactions with visually-impaired people.
Whenever someone is posting here about designing yet another navigation app/device, the overwhelming majority of comments say that the cane is fine as it is.
codeplaysleep 3 points 2y ago
Meh, I'll never trust an app more than I trust my cane's actual physical connection to the world that lets me feel what's really around me, as opposed to some abstract set of vibrations that I need to interpret and react to.
My cane also doesn't have a battery that will die while I'm using it, doesn't get damaged by water if I'm out in the pouring rain, and doesn't cost me $1000 to replace if I drop it.
My cane also doesn't have a battery that will die while I'm using it, doesn't get damaged by water if I'm out in the pouring rain, and doesn't cost me $1000 to replace if I drop it.
blindpilotapp [OP] 0 points 2y ago
Valid points. Thanks for your feedback.
Sweet_strawberries3 2 points 2y ago
I'm sorry but I don't think this will be very helpful for us. Also linking a website would have been much, much better than linking a video. Regardless of any audio description or whatever, a lot of us will be able to better engage with what the product is about when it isn't a video, because remember, we are blind.
blindpilotapp [OP] 0 points 2y ago
Absolutely. That isn't something we considered when we posted it. Thanks for the tip, the link, $1, has been added to the main post.
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