Denmark – A new app, called Be My Eyes, created to aid the blind, has been released worldwide by a Copenhagen development team.
The software allows a visually impaired user to access a network with the help of a volunteer who acts as a set of eyes.
Through the use of the smartphone’s front-facing camera, the user will ask a sighted participant to aid in completing day-to-day tasks and to help with anything sight-related.
According to the website for Be My Eyes, “the volunteer helper receives a notification for help and a live video connection is established. From the live video, the volunteer can help the blind person by answering the question they need answered”.
This concept not only helps an entire group that greatly needs it, but also gives volunteers an opportunity to help others.
The app gives people the opportunity to spread kindness through their smartphones and show compassion to those less fortunate than themselves.
Each session ends with an opportunity for the user to report misuse of the system. If anyone is caught giving wrong information intentionally or using the app to get private information for fraud or theft, the punishment is a ban from the network.
With his own visual impairment as inspiration, the founder, Hans Jørgen Wiberg, introduced the concept in 2012 at an entrepreneurial workshop in Denmark, called Startup Weekend.
The event led to the creation of Robocat, a Danish software studio team that prides itself on creating and distributing useful, as well as unique, hardware and software products out of Copenhagen.
“It’s my hope that by helping each other as an online community, Be My Eyes will make a big difference in the everyday lives of blind people all over the world,” Wiberg says on the app’s website.
The application has been made available only for the Apple operating system, but the team said they were aware of the potential for Android and Windows phone users who wanted to contribute.
The Star