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...More details at The Telegraph.
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.
Off to sign up now!!! (as a sighted helper) ~ what a lovely idea!!
ReplyDeleteAwesome! Thanks for sharing. I am going to spread this around as much as I can.
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ReplyDeleteThis 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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