Smartphone apps guide the blind through the world
With innovative apps, blind or visually impaired people can better connect with and cope in the wider world
Hong Kong is a tricky place to be blind. Learn the route to your favourite restaurant, and it moves. Walking through Wan Chai in rush hour is a dizzying crush. Attempt getting a guide dog and you probably would have a hard time. Hong Kong has just a handful of guide dogs since a ban on them imposed following a road accident in 1975 was relaxed in 2006.
While the city can't change its ways, technology is starting to give back to the visually impaired the skills they lack to navigate our concrete jungle. From recognising products in 7-Eleven to knowing which bus stop to jump off at, today there's an app for that.
Lend An Eye is perhaps the most ambitious of the bunch. Developed in Singapore by digital marketing agency Grey, the app gives the user a remote assistant who lends their eyes at a moment's notice.
The user wears the phone around their neck. When they need help - facing an unfamiliar street or roadworks perhaps - they dial up the app, which reaches a pool of volunteers. The phone's front-facing video camera automatically fires up and the volunteers guide the user to safety.
These new apps are cheap and everyone can get them. It's something very new and totally liberating
Ali Shabaz, of Grey, says: "In Asian cities, learning your route from A to B isn't enough. You step outside and there's construction work. This technology is simple and it enables people to get to exactly where they want to go."
