I’ve only received a couple calls in the time I’ve had the app but my overall experience was great. Helped a guy cross a busy intersection and another woman pick out some low-fat milk. Feels good to help man.
2 seconds lag is pretty long, and easy to notice. Nobody can cross the street in 2 seconds. So if there isn't enough margin of safety to be sure it is safe with the lag, then there wasn't enough without it too.
Most likely the help was just help find the button and then tell the blind person when the walk light lit up. Most busy intersections have a light for pedestrians, but many do not have any help for the blind. This is very much region specific - when I was in Germany all lights had a beep (in that one city). I've never heard such beeps elsewhere, but things can and do change faster than I travel to other cities.
We're also currently trialling Bluetooth add-on transceivers to the cone functionality to make crossing even easier.
One of the problems of the cones is that once the cone turns you often need to reposition yourself in the centre of the entry to the crossing before setting off (in order not to stray into traffic or bump into barriers).
With the prototype Bluetooth beacon your device can receive the signal when it is safe to cross whilst you're stood in the centre of the entry.
Australia has a very distinct sound literally everywhere that has a traffic light pedestrian crossings, and has for as long as I remember. To the point that I was shocked upon going overseas and finding places without them. There’s numerous YouTube videos of foreigners showing it off when they visit Australia.
The beep comes from behind a steel panel just under the button for the lights too, so if you’re both blind and deaf you can put your finger on it to feel the pulses of the tone.
Fun fact: Billie Ellish sampled it for the chorus of “Bad Guy”. Trance DJ Giuseppe Ottaviani also made a track prominately featuring it, “Crossing Lights”.
In the Netherlands we have a kind of rattle. Slow when red fast when green and intermittent when about to go from green to red. Although I must say they are not everywhere.
Yea, i'm with you. I worry about all the tiny little details and this type of app is wide open and my concern that i would get something wrong is near crippling my desire to help.
It's definitely my own neurosis here, but my desire to help is proportional to my desire to not hurt them. I'd love to help them, but i really don't want to mess something up for them either.
Well it’s entirely possible that they have to cross the street, so if nobody helps them on the app they just go ahead and pray for the best. But getting involved makes me feel responsible, not to mention the possible legal liability.
It's not like most of us are completely helpless when it comes to crossing streets. We know when it might be unsafe, and if a bus is approaching and you tell me to go, I wouldn't. But it might help a lot to actually reach the right street/find the second inaccessible traffic light/etc. You could also make sure that you describe the potential route to be taken, which might make it safer still. Sometimes a "A little left" or "You're turning onto another road" can be very helpful, which I assume was more or less the case. :)
I've had Be My Eyes installed on my phone for years but I never had the courage to answer a call. Part of it is that English is my second language, but fear of exposing someone to danger was even bigger. This situation sounds like the sum of all fears.
