iPhone App Allows You To Help The Blind via Video Chat

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No, that’s not a typo. Rather, “Be My Eyes” allows you to lend your eyes to the visually impaired via iPhone.

We are just not as important as we all think we are, but we still can’t take our eyes off the screens of our omnipresent (smart) phones. So, if you’re an iPhone user who suffers from the same affliction as many others, why not take a minute or two to help someone? “Be My Eyes” is an crowd-sourced iPhone app (Android on the way?) that couples the sighted with the blind when they need to have something read.

Is this a five spot or a tenner?

Let’s say a blind person wants to know the expiration date on the milk in their refrigerator, they grab their phone, open the app and click the screen which alerts registered helpers that someone is in need. Once a helper accepts, the rear camera becomes live and the helper can see what the visually impaired user cannot. Then its simply a matter of the two parties talking it out together. Or, “Thanks for the help, can you see the expiration date?”

The possibilities are quite endless and more important than potentially spoiled milk. New surroundings being high on that list along with “what denomination bill is this.” I don’t know if the possibilities are endless, but as a sighted person I could list hundreds. My guess is that someone who can’t see can get into the thousands from experience pretty easily.

Tremendous response to the new iPhone app

“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,” writes Hans Jørgen Wiberg, Founder of Be My Eyes on the website.

In just under two days of the app’s launch, nearly 15,000 helpers have signed up along with around 1,250 blind people. In that limited amount of time, nearly 2,500 instances of help have been registered.

So, iPhone users, download the app and lend a functioning eye, it’s more than many have to call on when needed.

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