Be my eyes

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Be my eyes
Online live help for the blind and visually impaired
languages over 180
operator Hans Jørgen Wiberg
editorial staff Hans Jørgen Wiberg
user over 3.7 million volunteers and over 215,000 blind and visually impaired people
as of 05/2020
Registration required
On-line 2015
https://www.bemyeyes.com/

Be My Eyes is a mobile app that blind and visually impaired to help people to recognize objects and situations of everyday life to master. The vision is taken over by a voluntary online community of normal sighted people who receive the camera image from individual randomly assigned affected persons and help via live chat. The app is currently available for Android and IOS .

functionality

The needy person starts a live stream that shows the view from their cell phone camera and is then involved in a phone call or conversation with a random person who has registered as a volunteer and speaks the same language and in whose time zone it is day. Chat assigned. This then describes the visually impaired person what they see so that they can understand what it is about without seeing it themselves, or tells the person what to do to solve a problem, for example by taking the camera off the impaired person Person is moved accordingly. Thanks to speech synthesis technology , content can also be read aloud. Blind and visually impaired people should be able to lead a more independent life and be able to understand things that were previously impossible or only possible to a limited extent for them.

Offer and number of users

Be My Eyes is used by over 3.7 million volunteers and over 215,000 blind and visually impaired people, many of whom are inactive. According to the company, there are over 180 languages ​​from A for Abkhazian to Z for Zulu and over 150 countries. However, some languages ​​are significantly less represented than others, which is due to the general prevalence of these languages. The app itself is free and ad-free and dispenses with unrelated social media functions in order to concentrate on the core task.

Development and publication

The app is developed and marketed by Hans Jørgen Wiberg. He himself made the experience that although there are video chats such as Skype or Facetime , none of them are tailored to the visually impaired. For his developments he teamed up with the Danish Association of the Blind , among others . The app was presented for the first time in 2012 at an event for start-ups and was first published in 2015. At the beginning of October 2017, a version for Android was released in addition to the iOS version. The company has more than 650,000 US dollars taken, including money from the Singularity University in Silicon Valley , Microsoft and donations . In October 2019, Be My Eyes Deep Link was integrated into the Right Hear mobile application for the blind and visually impaired.

reception

criticism

The app is praised for its simple operation, which makes it possible for anyone to help the blind or visually impaired and makes them more independent of their social environment to solve problems without having anyone around.

The insufficient data protection , which makes it possible to pass on data to third parties , is criticized . However, these are only organizations that work for the visually impaired. Reiner Delgado from the German Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired thinks the app is good, but also explains that many things can be solved without the help of video chat and it is questionable whether the time invested is always worth it. Furthermore, the camera quality, internet connection and lighting conditions must be right. Communicating with a stranger is fraught with uncertainty and therefore requires trust and courage . In theory, however, this can also be misused.

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Be My Eyes: Help blind people to see with an app - Utopia.de. In: Utopia.de. January 30, 2018, accessed July 11, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b Press Resources. Accessed July 12, 2018 .
  3. ↑ a b c This app lets you be a blind person's eyes from anywhere in the world. In: Metro. June 28, 2018. Retrieved July 12, 2018 .
  4. ↑ a b Karsten Bunz: Grant your eyesight: and let the blind see with it. In: CHIP Online. Retrieved July 12, 2018 .
  5. ↑ a b c Sebastian Meineck: "Be my Eyes": This app helps people with visual impairment in everyday life. In: Spiegel Online. January 20, 2015, accessed July 12, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Alexis Kleinman: Help The Blind Through Video Chat With This New App. In: Huffington Post. January 16, 2015, accessed July 12, 2018 .
  7. ↑ This App Lets You Lend Your Eyes To The Blind When They Need To See Something. In: Fast Company. January 27, 2015, accessed July 12, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Alex Lee: From braille to Be My Eyes - there's a revolution happening in tech for the blind. June 26, 2017, accessed July 12, 2018 .
  9. ↑ 'Be My Eyes' app let's vision-impaired people crowdsource sight. In: TODAY.com. Retrieved July 12, 2018 .
  10. ↑ I used an app to help a blind person work her washing machine - on the other side of the world. Retrieved July 12, 2018 .
  11. ^ Matthew Sparkes: 'Micro-volunteer' your time to help the blind. 2015, accessed July 12, 2018 .
  12. ↑ a b Be My Eyes: A perspective for everyone. In: ZEIT ONLINE. Retrieved July 12, 2018 .
  13. ^ Be My Eyes - Bringing sight to blind and low-vision people. Accessed July 12, 2018 .
  14. ↑ Be My Eyes. Accessed July 12, 2018 .
  15. ↑ How this startup helps blind people to see. In: Gründerszene Magazin. October 23, 2017. Retrieved July 12, 2018 .
  16. ↑ Apps put to the test - Be My Eyes. Retrieved July 12, 2018 .
  17. ↑ Karissa Bell: If you're blind, this app makes strangers your eyes. In: Mashable. Retrieved July 12, 2018 .