Italian company Il Village is pioneering a GPS satellite application designed to offer blind users greater independence, writes the BBC.
The application runs on Symbian mobile phones and is currently being tested by the Italian Blind Union. The device uses a Bluetooth headset to read out turn by turn directions to the user and has tow safety buttons on the handset – one to dial a call centre to request assistance and one to quickly state the users exact location.
The first phase of the project has resulted in 95% accuracy in determining a user’s exact location and its makers intend to rebuild the system from scratch for the second phase of testing to achieve 100% reliability.
Chief tester Federico Borgna, commented:
Easy Walk is very important to help me to go to the places that I don’t know. It gives me more confidence because I usually walk by myself but I have to know the way – Easy Walk helps me to go where I don’t know the way.
