(Newswire.net — January 18, 2015) — According to the ‘Be My Eyes’ website a new crowd-sourced iPhone app, has nearly 30,000 downloads just in the first day when launched. The app is a video call assistant function to allow the blind people to get instant help from sighted in challenging situations.
Since the app was launched on Thursday, it has assisted over 2,600 blind users on more than 5,400 occasions, app designers said.
The number of people offering voluntary assistance to blind users continues to expand, as over 30,000 sighted people had joined the app when published.
Hans Jorgen Wiberg, the founder of the app, is visually impaired himself. Wiberg believes 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.”
Wirberg said it took nearly two years to develop the app after the idea for Be My Eyes was first presented in Denmark in 2012.
So how does it work? The person who need an assistant just start an application and point iPhone camera towards scene need to be describer. First available person answers the call and explain the situation or read the text.
The app is especially useful when needed fast translation like checking the expiration date on a product, making it to the other side of the street, and other unsolvable tasks for the visually impaired.
Developed by Denmark-based company Thermodo, app has provided a simple, effective solution to everyday problems blind people cope with.
When a blind person finds himself in a challenging situation, he simply activate Be My Eyes to launch a video chat with a sighted helper. The helpers receive the buzz, however if they are not at liberty to answer, no worries, someone always respond.
The person in need can point his phone’s camera at the problem, and the assistant can describe the situation or read a text. Though sighted people are volunteering, they not leave without a reward. For each act of kindness, sighted assistants assigned points and advancing the levels.
The app is designed for iOS only, however the Be My Eyes developers say they are aware of “a lot of potential users with Android and Windows phones out there.”