Non-profit app, Be My Eyes, has hit the Appstore on iPhone. The free download aims to offer an opportunity to connect a sighted person with a blind person who needs their help with any day-to-day activities that requires normal vision.
Once downloaded the user can choose to sign up as either sighted or blind. If blind, you can then ask for help and these help requests are sent to sighted users to complete. The sighted volunteer is sent a direct video call from the blind person requiring assistance.
They are then able to see and describe what is being sent by the blind person’s device to them. There is no requirement to respond, if you are busy and can’t fulfil the request it will simply roll-over to the next user. Developers of the app believe it could truly “revolutionise everyday life for the blind”.
Inventor Hans Jørgen Wiberg, a 50 year-old furniture craftsman, came up with the concept after he himself started losing his vision when he was 25.
Be My Eyes aims to make everyday life easier for the blind and offer “a good opportunity for the busy, modern individual with the energy to help others”.
Since its launch, some users found the chance to help others impossible due to initial glitches which caused many to experience the app crashing after registration.
One user however commented that they “love the concept and the idea of helping people through modern tech.” Even New Girl star Zooey Deschanel is a fan of the app, promoting it to her Facebook followers:
@BeMyEyes Does @ZooeyDeschanel know she just pushed us passed 50k users?
— Tobias Due Munk (@tobiasdm) January 19, 2015
The app, which is developed in Copenhagen, is backed by the Danish Blind Society, the Velux Foundations and the software development studio Robocat.
You can download the app here.
Featured image courtesy of Emil Jupin & Thelle Kristensen via Be My Eyes
