Example of a Bluetooth beacon attached to an ‘exit’ sign.
A collaboration between IBM Research and Carnegie Mellon University has unveiled an open development platform to help programmers create apps for blind people. To demonstrate the capabilities of the platform they wrote the NavCog app that harnesses Bluetooth beacons placed around the university campus and the phone’s own sensors to provide all sort of information about the nearby environment.
The team is working on integrating more advanced capabilities that would let the app recognize nearby friends via their Bluetooth signals and perhaps even spot their facial expressions. The NavCog will soon be available for free on the App Store.
Check out this video about the project:
Link: NavCog homepage…
Source: Carnegie Mellon University…