BlindSquare
Submitted by AnonyMouse on Wednesday, May 23, 2012.
Last modified
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
Category
Description of App
BlindSquare makes you sense what's around you. The only thing you need to do is listen.
BlindSquare is a new solution that combines the latest technology to help the blind with their daily lives. It has been developed in collaboration with
blind people and carefully field tested. You need either an iPhone or an iPad to get started. It also supports some additional accessories to enhance the
experience.
How does it work?
BlindSquare uses GPS and the compass to locate you. It then gathers information about the surrounding environment from FourSquare. BlindSquare has some
unique algorithms to decide what information is the most relevant and then speaks it to you with high quality speech synthesis.
“What's the most popular café within 200 meters radius? Where is the post office or the library?”
Using BlindSquare as a GPS solution:
When you start the app, it will start telling you the interesting places and street crossings around you. By changing the radius, you can limit the area
you are interested in. You can also search by search term or by category. You can select an interesting place from the search results and perform the following
tasks:
1) Get contact info (address, phone number)
2) Open twitter feed or restaurant menu (if provided)
3) Make a phone call
4) Start tracking the place (BlindSquare will assist you by repeating the distance and the clock face direction)
5) Start your favourite navigator for turn-by-turn instructions (TomTom, Navigon or Apple Maps)
BlindSquare is aware of when you travel by car, bus or train and starts to report interesting places in front of you (for example, the next stops) and
street crossings when you are passing them.
You can also save your own private places to iCloud so they will be found with your every device.
Using BlindSquare as a FourSquare client:
If you like to play FourSquare, you can do the following with BlindSquare:
1) Get a list of nearby FourSquare venues
2) When you are in a place, you can check in by shaking your device
3) Do a check in with commenting and twitter/facebook sharing
4) Correct the location of the place
BlindSquare supports the following languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Czech, Russian, Estonian,
Polish, Arabic, Turkish, Portuguese, Japanese, Greek, Romanian, Croatian, Hungarian, Korean and Bulgarian.
VoiceOver usage is supported but it also includes higher quality additional speech synthesis by Acapela Text-To-Speech from Acapela Group.
Instructions in English: http://help.blindsquare.com/instructions and http://blindsquare.com/faq
Please note: This app retrieves data in real time from Foursquare and Open Street Map. Use of a flat rate data plan is highly recommended.
Having only been released in May 2012, BlindSquare has already received several prizes and awards:
- GSMA: Global Mobile Awards 2013, Best Mobile Health Product or Service
- Apps4Finland 2012
- OpenCities App Challenge 2012
- The Finnish Information Processing Association: Best Product 2012
Please note: To use BlindSquare, your iCloud account has to be active so BlindSquare can access it to save your settings and places.
Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life.
Version
4.26
Free or Paid
Paid
Apple Watch Support
Yes
Device(s) App Was Tested On
iPhone
iOS Version
10.3.1
VoiceOver Performance
VoiceOver reads all page elements.
Button Labeling
All buttons are clearly labeled.
Usability
The app is fully accessible with VoiceOver and is easy to navigate and use.
Other Comments
There is nothing but good things to say about this app. This is hands down one of my most favorite navigation app to use. It offers so much for so little cost. Now that it works in conjunction with the FREE Google Maps. You really should try this out first before buying in to those other very expensive accessible GPS navigations.
Developer's Website
Developer's Twitter Username
@BlindSquareGPS
Recommendations
39 people have recommended this app
Most recently recommended by james30 1 month 1 week ago
Comments
Version 1.12 released
What's New in Version 1.12
- New feature: Better direction awareness when traveling fast (by bus, cycling etc.)
- New feature: You can select how directions are reported
- New feature: Better algorithm when doing second foursquare checkin by shaking inside a big venue
- Fix: Help added
- Fix: Nearest crossing bug fixed
Version 1.14 released
A new update has just been released. I've not had an opportunity to take it for a test drive yet, but some of the new features look good:
What's New in Version 1.14
- NEW FEATURE: Cross street tracking on bus
- NEW FEATURE: Auto-blanking of screen can be disabled
- NEW FEATURE: Italian language added
- NEW FEATURE: Bouncing table starts WhereAmI query (for non-VoiceOver users)
- NEW FEATURE: Rating added
- NEW FEATURE: "Look around" reports also nearest crossing in each direction
- NEW FEATURE: When editing My places, you can reset location
- NEW FEATURE: You can start/stop tracking a place from Own places
- NEW FEATURE: In settings you can control how shake gesture is used
- CHANGE: Compass renamed as "Look around"
- CHANGE: Settings-button renamed as "Other"
- FIX: Poor GPS or network connectivity announcements doesn't cut out speaking but wait for it's turn
- FIX: Changing radius with VoiceOver has smaller resolution
New version
Hi. I'm going to try the new version today. One of my concerns was that street crossings weren't automatically announced when travelling on the bus.
New update
Hi. I've just tested the new update and would like to thank the author for including the ability to listen to street crossing announcements when traveling in a car or on a bus. I would like to point out one minor glitch and that is when you fire up the app by selecting it in the app switcher! The app no longer announces street crossing. I had to remove the app from the app switcher and re-start it again for it to function as normal.
Ghost BlindSquare Website
I just clicked on the link included for the so-called blindsuare developer's website and got taken to google groups. I did try this even before the purchase but though it might have been fixed, no such luck.
App support is via Google Groups
The link points to the developer's support forum, which, yes, is on Google Groups.
BlindSquare GPS Very Annoying And Disappointing
I've played with this app for about a month and first of all, find that voice they use on top of the IPhone most annoying and obtrusive. I did attempt to turn it off in settings but it always turns itself back on again. When searching around the screen,, things suddenly go blank and one most lift the finger and give several pokes to get things touchable again. The so-called help file is little more than the usual yadayadayada about use of advanced technology and such. I'll keep it a while longer but probably try for a refund though according to what I read on the apple website, such seems not possible. Further, like many data-sucking GPS packages, it seems to insist on using up my data every time it needs map info, rather than downloading maps even though on initial start-up, it asks to use my location to which I agreed. I should have become suspicious when I saw it was placed in the medical category; we blind are not sick unless there are health problems.
Somewhat disappointing Experience With Blindsquare, Latest versi
I've read all available post and information before and after my purchase of Blindsquare. First, I have not been able to turn off that most intrusive voice which insists on tromping all over that of voiceover. There is often unwanted interference from Miss SilverTongue when I'm exploring the screen. Next, seems that many developers of GPS have lots of money to spend on their programs constantly eating up cell air time by not downloading maps specific to the area, even though they have asked, and I have accepted, using my location. So, in order to get help, I have to subscribe to yet another social group? If these situations don't change, I will be asking for a refund from apple, more on principal than the small abount of money involved which I'd much rather give to applivis for the excellent website. Contrary to what I have read bout navigon, I find the buttons totally accessible and that review will be entered separately.
Hello! I'm developer of
Hello! I'm developer of blindsquare. Thank you for pointing this out. I have changed links to point official blindsquare site, http://blindsquare.com
Thanks for feedback
Thank you for the feedback. I have to say that 90% of feedback is positive so it's good to get also negative feedback and learn from your use cases.
BS has basically two modes. In active mode you use user interface to do things. I know in that case it might be annoying when second TTS is speaking over VO. There is no way for app to know when VO is speaking. I have some ideas how to make it better and it's planned to version 2.0. VO-only mode is also under planning. If I manage to do that I can publish lite-version without cost of TTS.
Another mode is to keep your device in pocket and just let BS to speak for you. You can set radius to minimum and deselect categories you are not interested. You will hear your location, crossings and most popular places around you when you are moving. If you have marked your own important locations (for example bus stop where you need to get off), you will be informed when you get near.
If you don't need the app as it is now, you should be able to return it and get refunded.
Flat rate
No, I do not have lots of money to spend, but flat rate data plan. Most of the data is fetched from FourSquare. It is not allowed to store data in device for long time. Still, they allow caching for short period of time and I'll add this to list of tings that needs to be taken care of. For now, I have added following text to app description:
Please notice: This app get's data in realtime from FourSquare and Open Street Map database. Flat rate data plan is highly recommended.
PS. Version 1.15 is waiting for review, You can learn more about new features from this blog posting: http://blindsquare.com/2012/06/sneak-preview-to-blindsquare-version-1-15-let-me-introduce-you-to-the-recent-places/
Despite Earlier Comments, Truly awesome potential
AS is the case with all GPS apps I have, and am still currently testing, I'll continue to work with a developing product. Since the only support for blindsquare seems only available through the author's monitoring of applevis, or by registering with facebook (and I have no other reason/desire to do so) my present issue lies with the blindsquare disappearing, at least when touching and moving around the screen. This is more likely to happen on the top right section of the screen. Since I have not experienced this with other apps, I think there is a problem here. Perhaps I should uninstall and reinstall again? If that screen was stable and reliable to touch exploration, other issues I've raised may be more easi to manage. As for cell flat rate, I am already spending $60 per month with a one GB limit on my data download and like many folks, my budget will not allow more (I know, boohoohoo but's what it is.) So, assuming I spend 5 hours a day out and about with blindsquare as my guide, what the total amount of data download add up to in a month? That may be an unfair question and perhaps apple, or GPS app developers need to add a feature which will keep track of such data. I suspect that this lies more in Apple's domain since then we could know whic apps are racking up the highest proportion of the data download. And indeed, I'll be sending this app data count to Apple.
newbie
I installed this app yesterday and thought I'd switch it on this morning while on the train to work to see how it went. Despite my not being in pedestrian mode, it announced every station I was approaching and told me what points of interest were around. I couldn't figure out how to mark it so as to give me an option to show me how to get to the POI but I am now going to read the instructions above so all should be good.
I did find the voice intrusive over Vo but I think when one is walking along, one won't need to be using VO anyway.
I'm a little confused after reading the comments, is the maps not installed on our phones with the program at all? Yes I do realize that four square is used but it doesn't contain names of streets etc. If not, wow, yeh imagine the data being chewed up.
Anyway overall, good GPS device, and am sure it will only get better. I haven't got Navigon; I should go and check it out.
Sorry, I didn't read the
Sorry, I didn't read the deveopper's comment answering my question I also had about the maps. Is there any reason why we can't store maps on the phone? We could download the ones we'll be using only to reserve space; that'd be awesome.
Disapearing of BS can be changed from settings
Support has never been via Facebook -- Link went to Google Forums. I have changed support link to be http://blindsquare.com/support/ -- It lists all channels you can use for support (not AppleVis though :-).
If your BS is disappearing, it's caused by proximity sensor. It uses that sensor to blank screen when BS is placed to pocket. For some people it doesn't work (for example 2 people with low vision reported problems when reading screen from short distance) and that's why you can change that behavior form Other/Settings.
I implemented data counter so I can answer your question "how much it uses data in 5 hours". From those counters I already see that getting addresses and cross streets uses pretty low amount of data compared to get POI's from FourSquare. It makes sense to have almost realtime data from FourSquare because it is used to calculate which places are most visited currently (so which is the best restaurant within selected radius etc). Still -- Based on this discussion I will implement some kind of caching.
How to get to POI
Hello! I'm glad you found it ar least interesting to hear where you go. When BS notices you are moving fast it changes two things: 1) Compass is not used anymore to get direction but GPS. 2) POI's are announced from the direction where you are heading at, not around you.
In current version POI's can be selected when you actively do something: Select category and you get list of "best places" and you can select any of those to target. Or do a search. To make it easier select one that was just mentioned, in 1.15 there is new list of "Recent Places": http://blindsquare.com/2012/06/sneak-preview-to-blindsquare-version-1-15-let-me-introduce-you-to-the-recent-places/
Maps are not installed to device. This is not trying to be Navigon but "social map" that has live information what happens around you. Based on this discussion I'm going to add caching mechanism that basically lowers data amount: It finds street crossing from device if you have once been there. For POI's (from FourSquare) there is rule that you can't cache them more than a week. That's because data is changing all the time and that's why it's so much richer POI-data that any static ones. This is one of the feedback I've received: "This is amazing! I am at a water park, and your app told me where all of the attractions within the waterpark relocated. Amazing! Keep up the good work." You would never find this information from static POI's. BS finds it because POI information is crowd sourced and realtime.
One user hint were to use Navigon and BlindSquare together: Start Navigon to give route to a place and put it background. Then start BlindSquare to foreground and hear what's around you.
Caching
Plan about caching is to go step-by-step:
1) Data usage calculator (I need to understand how much data is currently used)
2) Implementing caching so data is saved to device and used if you visit same place
3) Support for Off-line use
Idea if 3rd one is to give possibility to select place beforehand. BS would get information and cache around that place while you are at home or hotel. This would be very useful when you are abroad: You can download map of surrounding and then go out and find places...
1st one is already implemented, 2nd is started. Hopefully I can bring this out in version 1.16.
I've been wanting to purchase this
I've been looking at this app for a while, deciding if I want to purchase. So it will give you turn by turn directions, tell you when to cross intersections, and if I wanted to mark a bus stop and have it tell me how to get there I could? Thank you to the developer for being so available to us.
Almost that and more
..almost! I don't have turn-by-turn yet. I have voting going on in BlindSquare website about next "big feature": http://blindsquare.com/2012/07/voting-started-what-feature-you-would-like-to-see-in-blindsquare/
It seems turn-by-turn will be one of the veatures of 2.0.
In current version directions are distance + clock face direction. So it works if you are pretty near and then you use Navigon etc. to get there.
Intersections are mentioned as you go, also street address of your current location. You can mark your own spots and get informed when you get near them (you can select radius). Coolest feature is reporting of nearby places. It's based on FourSquare places. You don't need to use foursquare but you can do check ins with blindsquare too.
Reason for using foursquare instead of "official map POIs": Blindsquare knows from other peoples foursquare check ins, which are the most popular places in certain categories. You can think it kind of "local knowledge" about places nearby..
sharing places
hi there.
it would a good feature to be able to shair your private places. having marked a place, you can then decide whether you wish to shair it or not. also the ability to write a description of what you're doing there. tagging other people with you as well if possible.
thank you!
oh I love that you use foursquare, because I love foursquare! Anyway, yeah turn by turn would be nice, and it would be nice for it to tell you when to cross and all that. I say that because If I don't know the route to the place, it would be nice to try and get there on my own. I know it won't be 100% accurate, but it would still be a good feature. I don't use navigon, but I use motion X GPS drive. I guess blindsquare and that can go hand in hand.
Shared places are via FourSquare
BlindSquare has own category called Shared Places. It uses FourSquare as a backend, so I don't need my own server to host any data (BlindSquare uses iCloud to share your settings and private places among your own devices).
Currently you can't create shared place with BlindSquare but you use FourSquare instead: Add a new place and place it to category Home -- It is automatically shared with all of your FourSquare friends. I believe that it's better to use social network that already exists than to try create my own.
In version 1.15 you can add message what you are doing there and you get notification of friends nearby via FourSquare pushnotification, even if you use BlindSquare instead of foursquare.
Recording a route would be safer
I'm going to add turn-by-turn, I have today discussed with Google and one other about license. One feature that is also planned is recording route that you can replay later. That way you would be more sure that it's a safe route.
recording a route is a good idea but...
Having the feature to record a route is good, but what if you don't know the route and it's your first time? do you mean you record the route yourself?
Recording a route
Probably you would record route once with a guide but then you could get guidance for same route when you are alone.
Sharing a route publicly could be neat: Other BlindSquare users would get info if there is saved route to specific place and follow that. So, you would be in shopping mall and you could browse what routes is found nearby. There could be route to library and bank. If you select a route, it would guide you to the nearest point of route and then guide you via route.
problem with openning category menues
hi,
I am experiencing the problem when openning the categories. for example, I am double tapping the food menues, but no new screen is opened. I use the IOS 5.11 with iPhone4. and also, is it possible to adding a feature that when the app gets the map information such as street names, street numbers etc from the google maps, and get pois from the foursquare database?
gps accuracy
I put it properly through its paces yesterday avo and walked home from the station; I had my iPhone in my pocket with headphone jack facing upwards. It announced POIs and crossings way way later - as in, i'd passed them ages ago. I was standing at a crossing about to cross it when it told me I was 20 metres away from it and the incorrect clock face.
I don't think the GPS receiver in iPhone is very accurate unless it's the program or unless i'm expected to hold the iPhone towards the sky all the time.
Also, I was shaking the iPhone like mad but it wasn't giving me any option, ie, announcing the address I was at, or giving me an option to check-into four square even though I made sure that option was turned on in the settings.
gps accuracy reply
hi.
when walking the gps isn't used. it's the cumpus that's used so in affect you do need to point the phone in the direction you're heading.
personally i think this is a bad idea. i think cumpus usage should be scrapped all together and go over to gps. the cumpus would be good for a fallback in case of no gps availability but the primary should e gps all the way.
Despite Everything, programmer(s) Totally Awesome And Brilliant!
Well, despite my previous concerns about amount of data flow possibly driving me beyond my Cell provider limit, I did use Blindsquare in a busy downtown section of my city of Winnipeg Manitoba Canada and the information it gave me put my old Trekker absolutely to total shame; it even offered bus stops. Being prone to wonder and explore just because, I was actually confused for a time and Blindsquare got me out of the jam with no sighted interference. Silly me, I did read the help file and followed the suggestions re positioning. I have a ballistic holster which I can clip directly on my front belt by shifting the buckle to the right of my somewhat padded middle, screen facing towards my innards (guts.) While some of the streets were a little late in being announced, the direction I was heading was, according to the position of the sun and the time, bang on throughout my trip. Instructions for software are written for a good reason! I'm still having issues with the right quadrant of the screen disappearing when touching, sometimes the whole screen and I seem to recall that the settings are is in that troublesome spot. However, I think I can sneak up on it by carefully moving around the perimeter of the screen, maybe occasionally lifting and touching again. Why can't you amazing programmers have simple names like jack, bill, george, John, Sue, Debbie, or even Doug? If I caused this much action from a few simple posts, just wait till I submit my views on general GPS, Navigon, Aridne, Aftershokz Bone conduction headsets, etc etc. Seriously, to use a somewhat noxious phrase, "I'm only trying to help."
Ah OK thanks for that Daz,
Ah OK thanks for that Daz, I'll try pointing the phone forward; I didn't realize it used a compass.
Very Disappointed with the Accuracy
After reading all the feedback on this app, I figured I would finally break down and pay the $14.99 which ties the most I have ever paid for an app, so I was expecting a lot from it. I am disappointed to say that after testing it only a few times I find the navigation to be too far off to make this app worthwhile. I tried tracking to a stationary point that four square must have located, and did this with a sighted friend. I told him not to tell me when we got to the location, but did need his help as the direction was way off, and I was holding the phone with the screen facing me per the instructions. While standing at the location, the amount of feet we were from the location changed three times while I was standing completely still. We then attempted to head back to my apartment where I had set a point in the app. Standing outside my apartment we were closer in feet than inside where I actually set the point. How is that possible? I was sitting in the exact spot where I set my home point, and the app with tracking on told me I was 66 feet away from my desired location. While I do appreciate the developers attempt to develop a GPS app for the blind, I find that Blind Square falls far short, and is terribly over priced. I will give this app another shot tomorrow on the streets of New York City and see if I get better results there.
Is there restaurants within selected radius?
If you select category food and there is none in the selected radius, submenu is not opened but you will hear something like "No places found within radius of 300 ft. Nearest place is 0.5 mile away".
"Is it possibble to adding a features" --> I didn't get what feature?
1.15 fixes issue with imperial rounding
Are you using metric or imperial? Screen is facing backwards? In version 1.15 there is fix that it notices device orientation from sensors better.
DIsapearing can be fixed
Nice that it's working better for you now :-)
About screen disappearing, did you read about me earlier post how to disable proximity sensor?
FourSquare Checkins Don't Post to Twitter
Just curious why FourSquare checkins via BlindSquare don't post to Twitter? Is it a limitation with the app or the FourSquare API?
Would you like to be able to posti checkins to FB and Twitter?
BlindSquare uses FourSquare API by parameter "broadcast=public". It means it is visible via FourSquare but it's not announced to facebook or twitter. It would be easy to add more parameters but then user needs to have control over those settings.
SHould it be general setting or something that you could control whenever you do checking. You haven't seen new check in screen of BlindSquare 1.15 but I have to say it's pretty crowded so there might not be room for this additional control...
PS. I personally don't like seeing checkins in twitter/facebook feed
posting to fb and twiter
hi.
considering that with the normal app you can actually do this, i would think that blindsquare could or even should be able to do this. otherwise people will simply have to have 4square and blindsquare open simaltainiously which i don't think is right as it's a waste of system resources. so yes i think the ability to post to various social networks should be there.
I am not hearing
no, I am not hearing anything.
I am voice over user. interestingly, when I open the app, the akapela voice are opened everytime, and it speaks something whatever found around me is at 3 aclock etc. even if I dont tapp anything. and also, how can I get direction to a point? I cannot see the categories but, I can open the foursquare menu and choose something, I open the foursquare and tap a point, but again I cannot get any direction.
another issue that I mean we cannot learn building/house number, for example 1111 --- street, so I am thinking that the most accurate map is google maps about it. so, when the app get poi information from the foursquare, can get the street names, house number etc from the google maps. I dont know what do you think about it but, if it is done by using foursquare databases, its not enough, and also, the google maps is not enough for the pois. for the poi, in u.s I know that is good in google maps but, for example in turkey it is bad.
Not everything works via VO
I'm sorry to say, but currently not everything can be read via VO. Based on user response I'm planning version 2.0 where EVERYTHING can be accessed also with VoiceOver.
Forthcoming 1.15 gives more information via VO than current.
I would say that current version you can use like this:
1) Select radius (how far are you willing to go to find a place)
2) Browse to category you are interested about, for example "Food"
3) Double tap to start search form that category
4) You get list of all places of that category, most popular first. In next version you can get more information about place, in current version you can just start to track
And now comes the part you don't like: Currently guidance to find the place is using Acapela TTS that you can't hear.
I can't guarantee you timetable for 2.0 but I keep you in mind when implementing it :-) 1.15 might be more useful to you but I understand if you return app before it supports VO fully.
1.16 will allow posting to Twitter and FB
Hi Daz!
Thank you for bringing this need up. I just implemented setting for this. I first checked how this was implemented in FourSquare client and noticed it's VO implementation is pretty poor. I did better job on this, I believe.
In version 1.16 you can set setting to Private, Public or Twitter+FB. You do on the screen where you do check-in via UI. Setting is saved to device and iCloud so it will be default in all of your devices until you change it again.
Version 1.15 released
Lots of interesting new features in the latest update:
What's New in Version 1.15NEW FEATURE: FourSquare checkin stops trackingNEW FEATURE: Support for Navigon, TomTom and Google turn-by-turn navigation
NEW FEATURE: Faster way to stop tracking (Tools / Stop Tracking)
NEW FEATURE: Last 30 places mentioned can be browsed from Tools/Recent Places
NEW FEATURE: New page for FourSquare check in + starting/stopping tracking or navigation. Includes address, twitter, link to menu, distance, direction and phone number
NEW FEATURE: If place published phone number in 4sq, you can make a call
NEW FEATURE: If place published twitter account in 4sq, you can open their feed
NEW FEATURE: If place published menu in 4sq, you can take a look at it
NEW FEATURE: Shouting is enabled when doing foursquare check in
NEW FEATURE: Distance Unit can be changed (default is read from iOS settings)
NEW FEATURE: Possibility to set more exact location to FourSquare venues. Corrected locations are saved to iCloud, so they affect to all of your devices.
CHANGE: When doing check in with shake gesture, places with corrected location are prioritized
FIX: Rounding error fixed with imperial distances
FIX: Street number is announced when reporting your address
FIX: italian translation typos fixed
FIX: Directions are announced correctly with different device orientations (landscape, upside down etc.). Device still must be facing screen backwards.
FIX: If shake-to-checkin is disabled it's not announced anymore
CHANGE: street crossing announcement in bus ride has more information of surroundings
The Genius of Blindsquare listens!!!
Guess I'll have to peddle my generator faster to speed up the download of thee new release; can't wait for a test run. Perhaps the programmer(s) have the right idea by providing what seems to me to be in part a front end for mainstream GPS packages already well proven, such as tomtom and navigon. Now, why do I suspect that there is already consideration for ways to integrate this package with the upcoming IOS and the promised more powerful Siri. Sure would be nice to give voice commands to my programs like my biggest question when out and about, "where the hell am I?" or "take me to 442 Glenwood avenue."
Turn-by-turn step-by-step
This version integrates to mainstream turn-by-turn apps. Like you say, iOS 6 will bring something to this area and BlindSquare will support it. There is also plan to integrate MapQuest turn-by.turn technology inside BlindSquare. It will not say "after 60 meters turn left" but do it BlindSquare.way: It will give distance and clock face direction to the next turning point.
This needs more accurate GPS algorithms and that's what I've been fine tuning last two weeks. It means coding some internal recording tools, days out testing by walk and by car, analyzing data, coding and more testing. I have got lot help from my test users who has been going out to test and compare different versions.
So, we need to do this step-by-step but I believe this will be superior some day.
Hi. Does turning your wifi on
Hi. Does turning your wifi on help with location accuracy? I have found this to be true with other GPS apps such as Ariadne and Sendero Look Around. I would love to see a full blown navogation feature within this app. When I first purchased the app over a month ago! The app wasn't informing me of street crossings when I was using public transport. The app has been vastly improved and I now use it more than the other solutions that I have tucked away in the GPS folder. My other question was about saving places. If my bus pulls up at a certain stop and I decide to save the location! Will Blindsquare save this location accurately even if the bus starts to move again or will the current GPS location be saved. This is a concern for me as one wouldn't get enough time to quickly save a landmark. I would also make a recommendation and that is to move the save location button to the main screen as this would save alot of time.
Accuracy of GPS with wifi
iPhone finds location faster if you have Wifi enabled. If you are in a bus or inside of building Wifi gives position but it is not so accurate but good enough to tell you places or crossings nearby. I have found that in some cases it can also cause problems. For example in Helsinki/Finland we have wifi network in metro. When Google car has driven our streets it has recorded place for wifi which is in metro and thats why I might not be moving at all when I'm on that metro!
I'm glad you find new features useful. Next version will have same kind of reporting of cross streets while you are walking. It takes really huge development and testing effort to make it work. I have written track recorder which my test users are using when they test new version. I get rich info to the map about route, GPS accuracy, compass, other sensors, locations of crossings, venues, all text spoken etc. etc. This is the only way I can develop new algorithms and to be sure it works in different situations. For last 2 weeks my beta testers has recorded over 100 miles of walking with BS!
About saving location when you are in a bus: First of all try to maximize your accuracy by placing your phone near window. You should be able to get pretty good GPS accuracy and then saving a place on the fly would be okay. If you step out, save place and take next bus, location will be better.
About bringing button into main screen: My screens are already crowded! I really need to rewrite UI. I have plan how to do it and it's planned to BlindSquare 2.0. There is no timetable for that, there will be several 1.X releases before that to bring some cool new features.
gps accuracy and new feature suggestions
hi there.
i think the programme is great and i am using it more and more.
i think you need to go fully over to gps when walking rather than using the cumpus. the reason why i say this is because it's not practical to try and make sure that the phone is facing a specific way when walking. also i don't like the idea of having the phone on a belt clip which makes the phone fully visible to anybody that passes you by. it's the best way of saying here you go take a free phone to anybody that thinks you're an easy picking. that's probably the most important thing you can do at this stage in my opinion.
as for new features, well you need facebook and twitter intigration into blindsquare. the ability to add a new checkin place like you can on foursquare. possibly even to brows your foursquare feed so you can see what your friends are doing. as for navigation, are you going to rely on third party apps to provide turn by turn navigation or are you going to put that into blindsquare at some point? keep the cumpus as a secondary form or backup if for whatever reason you can't get a gps signal. there are situations where that can happen so it would be handy to have that as a backup.
1.16 will go with GPS
1.16 will go with GPS only if accuracy is good. If you are standing still, compass is used. I even try to pick up your device positioning when walking so compass can be corrected when you stop. This needs lots of testing and thats what is going on right now.
I believe foursquare API terms says that it's forbidden to add foursquare places support to same app. Sharing could be added but would it make sense? If you can figure out clear concept that makes sense, I'll add it to app :-)
iOS6 will bring tunr-by-turn. I have also option to use MapQuest turn-by-turn. So, some kind of turn-by-turn will be implemented but I have some other ideas that must go first...
I need your opinion
Hello! Version 1.17 is waiting for Apple review. It's huge leap forwards. 3 new languages, reports next street crossings, has also US English TTS and more. I have got great feedback from beta testers.
In next version I'll add more search alternatives. Search by place name (current), search by address and by contacts. That's why I need to introduce submenu for selecting what kind of search you want to do. I need your opinion how to make this in a way that works best with VO.
Here are some alternatives:
1) I show AlertView popup. That works with VO but it is not obvious to user that it's actual popup window with cancel button. There is also limitation in number of button. Later on I will add more search possibilities (local services etc.) and I don't want solution that limits maximum number. This would be the easiest way to implement but I don't like it. Currently Tools and Others uses this but I've already reached the limit and will probably change UI to use Tabs instead
2) I show new page with title, back button and table where you have different search alternatives in rows. By clicking a row you get into new page for doing search of that kind. When search is done you get back to main, not to search type selector. I don't like the fact that when you start search, VO will start speaking Title and back-button, I would like it start from selecting search alternative.
3) Same than 2 but I would leave title bar and back button away. Last row of the table would be Back.
4) I show page with tabs for different search types. Since I'm going to change basic UI to use tabs, I don't like this because it would later on mean I would need tabs inside tabs.
5) I show only one search page, search type selector on top and search term bottom. After search I'll show new page with search results
So please! What's your opinion? How should this be implemented? Do you recall any app that has same kind of use case and has implemented this well?
Prefer suggestions 2 and 5
Hi,
If it was possible to make the scrub gesture work in BlindSquare, I would prefer your second suggestion. if it isn't, then I think 5 would be best. I don't like 3 because I think buttons should be where you expect them, and most apps have a back button on the top left of a page.
Hth
I hope Apple will fix scrub gesture
I hope Apple will fix scrub gesture in iOS6. When they introduced new UI building blocks in iOS5 they kind of forgot to implement scrub gesture (I think). More technically: StoryBoards doesn't know anything about getting back that was basic functionality of old Navigation Controller.
I have given some thoughts on this and I think too that option 5 is the best. Thank you for helping on this.
Accessibility Comments
This app is fully accessible with VoiceOver. All buttons and controls are clearly labelled, and once you have familiarized yourself with the interface it is fairly easy to navigate and use.