Emily Chung, CBC News, September 19, 2017 CNIB pilot project plans to install 200 wayfinding beacons in Toronto stores and restaurants. If you were blind and walked into a coffee shop, how would you find the counter so you could order? The iOS BlindSquare app gives verbal directions to customers at several businesses in the…
May Warren, Toronto MetroNews Canada, June 27, 2017 The Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) is putting small battery powered beacons in 200 restaurants and shops. The beacons will transmit to an app called BlindSquare, to verbally guide people around indoor buildings. The program is funded through a grant from the the Rick Hansen…
Linda Stuart, Cartt.ca News, Cable and Telecom, February 2, 2017 For most of us, location-based augmented reality apps might be considered nice to have, entertaining technology that conjures up images of last summer’s PokaMon Go craze. But for blind and visually impaired people, the use of augmented reality technology in audio-based navigation apps can provide…
App Boost For Blind, By Michelle Ruby, Brantford Expositor, March 9, 2016 At a launch of the new technology on Wednesday, manager Glenn Brown said the Sanderson is the first performing arts venue in the world to install BlindSquare, a GPS application developed for the blind and visually impaired that describes the environment and announces…
Cameron Spark, CNIB, September 30, 2015 CNIB has taken mainstream GPS navigation to a new level of accessibility for people who are blind or partially sighted. It now offers indoor navigation by pairing its technology with iBeacons that are located throughout CNIB’s national office at 1929 Bayview Avenue in Toronto. These devices alert users to…
Christopher Reynolds Toronto Star, August 14, 2015 A blind computer software engineer from Toronto is giving eyes to those who can’t see. David Best, a former IBM web developer, has just helped usher in the first pilot system in Canada created specifically to help visually impaired people – nearly 200,000 in Ontario alone – navigate…
