Be My Eyes ~ Lend your Eyes to the Blind
There’s a new iPhone app from the Danish team known for Thermodo that lets sighted folks help the blind on the rare occasions they need it. Called Be My Eyes, the non-profit, crowd-sourced app (on iOS only for now) pairs sighted with blind users using video chat. The concept is pretty simple: when a blind person needs help to, say, glean the expiration date on a carton of milk or cross a street, they simply tap their screen to find the first available sighted helper. Once a helper accepts the request, the blind person points his rear camera at the problem and can get assistance by video chat.
If you sign up, the Be My Eyes team said there’s no need to worry about “leaving a blind person hanging” if you’re not available. Over 13,000 helpers have signed up in just over a day to help around 1,145 blind people so far, with around 2,000 instances of aid given already, according to the Be My Eyes site. The overwhelming number of users shows there’s still nice functionality to be had in some pretty old tech.
Be My Eyes makes life easier for the blind, by connecting them with sighted helpers through a smartphone app. This allows the blind to handle big and small tasks, while sighted get the joy of helping someone else in a easy and informal way.
It only takes a minute to choose the right tin can from the shelf, look at the expiration date on the milk or find the right thing to eat in the fridge – if you have full vision that is. For visual impaired individuals smaller tasks in their home can often become bigger challenges. Be My Eyes hopes to change that!
Through a direct video call the app gives blind people the opportunity to ask a sighted volunteer for help, for tasks that requires normal vision. The blind person “lends” the helper’s eyes all through his or her smartphone. The sighted helper is able to see and describe what the blind person is showing the sighted helper by filming with the video camera in the smartphone. That way, by working together they are able to solve the problem that the blind person is facing.