02 February 2015

You can "micro-volunteer" your time to help a blind person


One more way smartphones are changing the world:
Be My Eyes allows you to “micro-volunteer” tiny portions of your time, perhaps less than a minute, remotely via your smartphone. 
The idea is to lend your sight to a blind person, via a one-way video link, and help them accomplish a task that is simple for you but impossible for them
Imagine cooking a meal, but being unable to tell one can of food from another. Or receiving a letter and not knowing if it was a bill, a wedding invitation or junk mail. Or perhaps you have taken a taxi to an appointment but can't find the correct doorbell...

All of these problems can be solved by a stranger donating just a few moments of their time, thanks to some clever coding. Be My Eyes is already available as an iPhone app and an Android version is on the way...

When a blind user requests help, a call goes out to a random sighted volunteer. The clever part is that there’s no pressure: if you’re in the middle of something, you can ignore it, and another user will pick it up. But if you are free you can answer with a tap and help with their problem...

Already there have been over 23,000 such interactions - tiny portions of time donated to make someones life easier. More than 8,500 blind users have signed up to the service, and 103,000 sighted volunteers.
More details at The Telegraph.

4 comments:

  1. Off to sign up now!!! (as a sighted helper) ~ what a lovely idea!!

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  2. Awesome! Thanks for sharing. I am going to spread this around as much as I can.

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  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  4. This is a great idea, but it's too bad that the app is limited to iOS, which is only 17% of smartphone users worldwide, and is only available on Apple's expensive and proprietary technology. Bring this app to Android, too (77% of the world smartphone market and the OS for most smartphones in the developing world) if you really want to make a difference for blind people worldwide.

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