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.
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.
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.
It turned out..”
This could become some kind of romantic movie.
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”.
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.