Tag: app

Anyone Who Needs Help Seeing Has 2 Million Pairs of Eyes Available With This App

Posted on by robbie

When Rory Hoffman needs to read the labels on his cassette tapes, he opens up an app. Marian Helling Wildgruber finds the spices in her kitchen cabinet by pulling out her phone. Tabitha Jackson grabs her phone before she goes grocery shopping.
Hoffman, Wildgruber and Jackson all are blind or visually impaired. So tasks like reading labels, selecting the right herbs and navigating stores can prove challenging.
That’s where Be My Eyes comes in. It’s a mobile app that connects people who are blind or visually impaired with volunteers who have normal vision. By tapping their camera’s video function, volunteers can guide people with vision impairments in a variety of daily tasks.
The app launched in 2015, and within 11 days, it had 100,000 volunteers. Now, four years later, two million volunteers have joined Be My Eyes. It’s part of a movement coined microvolunteering, whereby small tasks performed by many people can add up to real impact  on a large scale. For Be My Eyes volunteers, there’s no commitment to a certain number of calls. It’s just a chance to help someone out when they need it.
There is an estimated 1.3 billion people with some form of visual impairment worldwide. People who are visually impaired might have family or neighbors they can rely on, but on-demand support 24/7 is unlikely. Sometimes an extra set of eyes is helpful.
Hoffman uses Be My Eyes a few times a week. He typically relies on a neighbor to help him with tasks that require normal vision, but it’s nice to know there’s immediate help at hand, he says.
“I don’t have to wait for anyone to come, I can just take care of it immediately.”
Hoffman, who is a musician, recently wanted to replace the strings on his guitar. But it was impossible for him to feel the slight differences between each string. So Hoffman pulled out his phone and using the phone’s voice recognition feature, made a call on Be My Eyes.
There, a volunteer popped up and read the guitar string labels. In just a few minutes, Hoffman had the right strings for his guitar.
“There are some times when having somebody with a pair of eyes just makes things helpful,” he says. “And to be able to just connect to somebody who’s available to help, that’s really a great idea.”
The app was founded by Hans Jørgen Wiberg, a Danish furniture designer. Widberg, who is visually impaired, was talking with a few of his blind friends when they said they all relied on FaceTime to connect with family and friends for assistance.
Widberg realized this idea could work with volunteers. He brought his idea to a startup weekend in Denmark in 2012, where he met Thelle Kristensen. Together they formed a team. It took two and a half years to develop and bring the app to the market.
“The fire in our belly was to make a worldwide network of volunteers to help out, and it’s been great to see the reaction with ten times as many sighted as blind people,” says Kristensen, the co-founder and CEO of Be My Eyes.
Lauren Traut was deep in conversation when her phone rang, and she received a notification from Be My Eyes that someone needed assistance.
“I told my friend, ‘Hold on. Pause. I got to take this call.’”
On the line was a woman who needed help reading a letter. It was from a church thanking her for a donation she recently made in honor of her husband and daughter who had recently passed.
Traut said the appreciation in the woman’s words had a lasting impact.
“Granted that task probably wasn’t life-changing for her,” Traut says, “But it’s simple things like that that maybe fully sighted people take for granted.”
Traut says the sheer magnitude of volunteers on the app is incredible. But this also means a single volunteer won’t get too many calls.
Traut downloaded the app in June 2017. Since then, she says she’s only received six or seven calls.
But for Wildgruber, it’s reassuring to know she won’t be bothering anyone.
“You know the volunteers are answering the phone if they want to,” she says. “And knowing that if you call a few times a day, you’re not bothering anyone.”
“Sometimes it’s a quick fix, other times it’s a longer conversation of what’s life like where you are,” says Christian Erfurt, the chief executive of Be My Eyes. “That reminds us that we’re not that different, and the gap between ‘us and them’ is minimized.”
More: The GovTech Apps Changing the Way We Live

—

Editor’s note: An earlier version of the headline incorrectly stated there were 100,000 volunteers on the app. The correct number is 2 million.

Fighting Cyberbullying Can Be as Easy as Pressing Pause

Posted on by robbie

Rebecca Sedwick was a victim of cyberbullying at the age of 12. Her death sparked a national conversation about how to best address cyberbullying. People began asking how parents could better manage their kids’ digital communications. “I’m aggravated that the parents aren’t doing what they are supposed to be doing,” Florida Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told CNN during the investigation into Sedwick’s death.
But Trisha Prabhu, who, inspired by Sedwick’s case, created the anti-bullying app ReThink when she was just 13, found that it wasn’t necessarily the parents’ responsibility to manage their kids’ online presence; rather, it was important for teens themselves to understand that what they say to a peer could be devastating.
“Here we are, giving teenagers this incredible power to communicate as digital citizens. And quite frankly, they’re not really equipped to make those decisions,” Prabhu, now 17, says. Her app uses an algorithm that recognizes and flags offensive language before it’s sent via text message or posted online. “There are severe consequences and lifelong scars when someone is bullied, and cyberspace compounds the effects.”
Numerous studies have shown that the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that manages impulse control, develops during teenage years but matures later, when people reach their mid-20s. That lack of impulse control leads to words a teen aggressor might regret. It’s also inspired anti-bullying advocates to find ways to encourage teens to second-guess their online interactions.
Prabhu’s ReThink app, which has been pushed by the Los Angeles Police Department and other organizations, uses an algorithm that is able to recognize and flag offensive language, then halt the message from being sent, allowing the sender a second chance to evaluate what they’ve written.
ReThink’s linguistic models are able to tell the difference between a user complaining about the weather, say, versus a user who’s sending a threat to someone. So for example, typing out “I hate the rain” would not be flagged. But messaging “I hate you,” on the other hand, would trigger the app’s filtering tool, which pops up when the user hits send and asks, “Are you sure you want to post this message?”
The app is invaluable to organizations that have been looking to technology as a disruptor for negative online messaging. Initial trial runs of the app found that 93 percent of teens that use it changed their minds about sending a message. ReThink now has more than 1.1 million users around the U.S.
“All the app does is shoot a question back to you, and it helps give you another filter,” says Jane Clementi, whose son Tyler was a victim of suicide in 2010 after his college roommate outed him by posting a sex video online. “I always tell people to take a breath, reread what they’ve written and if it’s not building someone up, if it’s tearing them down, I would hope that they would reconsider what they’ve written or maybe even discard it.”
Jane and her husband, Joe, started the Clementi Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to preventing the kind of bullying their son endured. The couple has endorsed the ReThink app and appointed Prabhu to the foundation’s board.
“Technology like the ReThink app gives you a second chance,” says Joe. “And you don’t always get a second chance on a lot of things.”
The 2017 AllStars program is produced in partnership with Comcast NBCUniversal and celebrates social entrepreneurs who are powering solutions with innovative technology. Visit NationSwell.com/AllStars from Oct. 2 to Nov. 2 to vote for your favorite AllStar. The winner will receive the AllStar Award, a $10,000 grant to help further his or her work advocating for change.
Correction: A previous version of this video incorrectly stated that Trisha Prabhu had already graduated from high school. She is currently a senior in high school. NationSwell apologizes for the error.
[button url=”http://nationswell4.wpengine.com/tech-impact-allstars-2017/#vote-now-for-your-favorite-tech-impact-allstar” ]Vote for Trisha Now![/button]
 

5 Super-Easy Ways to Use Your Holiday Dollars for Good

Posted on by robbie

The average American plans to spend $752 on Christmas presents this year. That frenzy of gift-buying nets corporations (including some naughty ones) hundreds of billions of dollars. During that four-week shopping spree, from Black Friday to Christmas Eve, it can be tough to find a moment to research where all your cash is going — and, by extension, what business practices your purchases might endorse. NationSwell selected five apps, all available for free in the iTunes App Store, to help you shop responsibly. After all, you don’t want to find coal in your stocking come Christmas morning, now do you?

1. See what other socially conscious consumers think

Scan a barcode, and OpenLabel will give you the crowd-sourced lowdown on the item in hand. The Yelp-like reviews — which touch on everything from environmental sustainability to labor practices — aren’t fact-checked, but a system of up-voting puts the most helpful reviews at the top. See an un-reviewed product? Add your own slant to the growing mix.

2. Support companies that support women

Data on gender equality is tough to find online. How many women hold leadership positions in a given company? How many weeks of maternity leave does a business’s policies guarantee? Does its advertising reinforce gender stereotypes? Buy Up Index Index has your answers. Use this app to determine whether 120 popular corporations are worthy of women’s purchasing power.

3. Know which political party you’re backing

With its ruling on the Citizens United case, the Supreme Court allowed independent political action committees to raise unlimited sums from corporations. (In the past year, these super PACs spent $1.1 billion to influence the election.) BuyPartisan, an app built by a former Capitol Hill staffer, compiles data on campaign contributions so you can see if a company’s CEO, board of directors or a corporate PAC is funding a candidate you oppose.

 4. Join a campaign for change

Voting with your dollar is essential. But a company might not know you’re doing so, unless you explicitly tell them. On Buycott, you can join user-generated campaigns that will tell you which products to avoid. Whether the Koch Brothers or Kellogg’s are the objects of your ire, you’ll find plenty of others to join you in protest here.

5. Shop at ethically responsible companies

Worn out from all this research into the byzantine world of corporate ownership? DoneGood makes it easy to target mission-driven sellers. Select a value you prize — “green,” “locally sourced,” “gives back” — and you’ll see a list of businesses that match your criteria. Several vendors offer discounts if you find them through the app.

Wondering If You’ve Had Too Many Beers? There’s an App for That

Posted on by robbie

As we ring in the holidays with a host of festive fetes, roads become increasingly dangerous for alcohol-related crashes. But Maryland is hoping the new app, ENDUI, will help its residents avoid getting behind the wheel when they’ve had too much to drink.
The state recently unveiled the app that helps drivers determine if they’ve had too much to drink by entering gender, weight, the type of alcohol consumed and the timeframe in which those drinks were imbibed. ENDUI, developed by the Maryland Highway Safety Office, then estimates a blood-alcohol content and assists users with calling designated friends or cab companies.
ENDUI also features two interactive games that assess cognitive response and reactions to help determine whether a driver is impaired, and it also lets users report other drivers suspected to be under the influence, the Baltimore Sun reports.
“The game is meant to be a hook and pull you in,” says Tom Gianni, chief of the Maryland Highway Safety Office. “Then it’s meant to give you a lesson of, ‘See what can happen. Imagine if you were behind the wheel.'”
Last year, 152 people were killed in an alcohol-related crash in Maryland, which is one-third of all traffic fatalities in the state, according to organizers with Maryland Remembers, a yearly victims memorial.
Funded with federal money from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reserved for drunk-driving education, the app is one of many across the country hoping to engage Americans. New York, New Mexico, California and Colorado have similar ones.
“I think states are starting to go that route because they’re trying to reach consumers where they are and where they spend time, and everyone spends time on their phone,” says Kara Macek, a spokeswoman at the Governors Highway Safety Association. “I think we’re going to see more of that as we go forward.”
The app is currently available for free on Google Play and iTunes.
MORE: A Technological Solution to Texting While Driving

The App That’s Beautifying the Daily Commute

Posted on by robbie

New York City subways are notoriously known for their clutter of ads pushing anything from weight loss miracles to online college courses. And since New Yorkers spend an excess of time underground traveling across the city’s seven boroughs, a new app is setting out to make that experience a little more pleasant.
NO AD is an augmented reality app designed to replace the abundance of mindless ads masking the city’s subway stations and trains with art.

“I think that overconsumption of advertising is detrimental to your mental health,” says street artist Jordan Seiler, who created the app. “Public space happens to be the only media space I can’t opt out of. I would advocate for the complete banning of advertising as a social health issue, the same way that we want to clean up toxic waste.”

Seiler enlisted 50 artists to contribute to the app, which works by opening the app and pointing the camera at the horizontal vinyl ads scattered across platforms at the city’s 468 stations.
NO AD uses feature tracking software to target which ads to filter out, excluding public health messages from the list. The campaign ran in NYC throughout the month of September and hopes to continue with other contributors from local galleries and museums. The app can be downloaded for free at app store or on Google Play.
As more people embrace the wearable market thanks to head displays like Google Glass, Seiler contends products like NO AD will become important in navigating the city’s ad-laden landscape.
MORE Robots to the Rescue: Machines That Bring Hope

New York City Taxis Go Pink

Posted on by robbie

On the busy streets of New York City, hailing a taxi can be impossible at times. And if you’re looking for one with a female driver? Well, the odds of finding that can be like looking for a needle in a haystack.
That’s because fewer than three percent of the 115,000 licensed taxi, livery and limousine drivers in New York City are female. So for women who may not be comfortable with a male driver due to safety, religious or social reasons, the options are severely limited.
Which is why Stella Mateo invented SheRides – an app that quickly locates and orders a cab driven by a woman. (Stella is the wife of Fernando Mateo, the founder of the New York State Federation of Taxis.)
So, how does the app work? Once it’s downloaded, the user can search for a female driver nearby throughout New York City, Westchester County, N.Y. and Long Island, N.Y. Requested drivers are easy to spot curbside because they’re outfitted with a pink scarf.
Not only is the app making riders feel secure, but it’s also encouraging female drivers to get back into the taxi business, like 64-year-old Dinorah Decruz, who is coming out of a year of retirement. After being almost robbed by a male customer, the ability to focus on female clients makes Decruz feel safer.
Currently, about 100 female drivers have registered with the app, and while Mateo planned to launch it this month, she’s decided to wait until she has 500 drivers enrolled to help ensure its success.
Right now, though, she hopes that it will inspire more women to join the profession. After all, the app offers a safe and comfortable atmosphere — for both driver and passenger — which is exactly how 66 year-old Bronya Shaffer feels. “It’s having one more opportunity in our whole world, in all of our interactions everywhere, to know that I can choose to have a woman if I want,” she tells Times Union. “It’s kind of nice.”
MORE: Despite a Major Setback, This Young Woman Continues to Fight for At-Risk Youth

Can a Plush Toy Robot Get Young Kids Interested in STEM?

Posted on by robbie

How many parents have spent countless hours playing Candy Land or Barbies with their kids?
Chris Harden and Jeremy Scheinberg are two dads from Alabama and Florida who grew tired of their children’s toys. The two felt their children weren’t getting much out of playing mindless games, which is why they decided to create a toy that helps kids get a head start on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning.
In less than a week, the pair will crowdfund a campaign on Kickstarter.com for their answer to more STEM-focused toys. TROBO, which connects to an iPad or iPhone app, is a plush toy robot that tells stories of STEM-focused topics to children ages 2 to 7, the Anniston Star reports.

TROBO features two characters: Curie, named for physicist and chemist Marie Curie and Edison, (a shout out to inventor Thomas Edison), both representing STEM heroes. TROBO plans to release more characters if the Kickstarter campaign is successful.

Harden previously served as a Development Director of EA Sports, overseeing the creation of user interface technologies for games like Madden NFL and NCAA Football. Scheinberg was the COO of media manufacturer Alcorn McBride and has worked extensively on rides and shows for NBC, Universal, Lego and Disney.

“It defines us as individuals, and we want to share that to our children as early as we can,” Harden says, referring to STEM education.

While the entry point at which children should begin STEM education remains a point of contention, some advocates argue the earlier the better. In fact, only 16 percent of American high school seniors are considering a career in the STEM fields and are proficient in math, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

“As a society, we have to celebrate outstanding work by young people in science at least as much as we do Super Bowl winners,” President Barack Obama said earlier this year at the White House Science Fair. “Because superstar biologists and engineers and rocket scientists and robot builders, they don’t always get the attention that they deserve, but they’re what’s going to transform our society.”

Beginning with something as simple as a stuffed robot regaling children with STEM stories sounds like a good place to start.

MORE: Ask the Experts: How Can We Fix Early Childhood Education?

The New Way for Citizens to Report the Actions of Law Enforcement

Posted on by robbie

In today’s world, it seems almost impossible to separate teenagers from their phones. But while most spend hours and hours checking out social media sites or playing games, some are using the power of technology to inspire change.
Enter Five-O, the new app that allows users to document police abuse in order to create a community base for problem-solving. It’s inspired by the new wave of police violence reported in the news — particularly the continued unrest in Ferguson, Mo.
While an app like this is certainly a new phenomenon, the inventors behind it are even more unlikely: three teenagers from Georgia. Fourteen-year-old Caleb Christian, and his two sisters Ima, 16, and Asha, 15, have always had an interest in coding. After attending MIT’s k12 Scratch and App Inventor program, the three siblings continued to delve into the coding world, learning JavaScript, HTML, CSS and Java — making the programming of the app a breeze.
The process is just as simple for users. Once you’ve download the app, all you do is submit a detailed report on any case of alleged police abuse and rate the officer.
Then the community steps in. The app has county community boards where users can discuss and attempt to solve the problem. Those potential solutions can then be brought to community activists, the media or other forms of law enforcement.
For the Christian siblings, that is the whole point of the app — to find a solution to inspire change.
“We’ve been hearing about the negative instances in the news, for instance most recently the Michael Brown case, and we always talk about these issues with our parents,” Ima told Business Insider. “They always try to reinforce that we should focus on solutions. It’s important to talk about the issues, but they try to make us focus on finding solutions. That made us think why don’t we create an app to help us solve this problem.”
It’s important to note, however, is that this isn’t an app designed purely to rate negative run-ins with the cops; it’s also meant as a place to document the police officers doing positive work. The app welcomes encouraging stories about police actions to act as motivation for the other officers or serve as examples.
The app became available for download two days ago for both Apple and Android devices.
[ph]
MORE: When Communication Barriers Prevented Coworkers from Talking, Goodwill Provided Language Lessons for All
 

An App That Turns Everyday Bystanders Into Everyday Heroes

Posted on by robbie

When an airplane passenger is in physical distress, the flight attendant calls through the speakers asking if medical professionals are on board. It’s a simple action that can make a huge difference. What if we could mimic this same outreach, 10,000 feet below, everyday on the ground?
That’s exactly what the smart phone app PulsePoint (for download here) makes possible, according to Emergency Management. Using the gadgets we all carry every day, municipalities that use the free mobile service are able to send out alerts to CPR-certified citizens who are nearby someone in need. In many cases, there are just a few minutes between life and death, so every second counts. By quickening response times, this app can help save lives — before an ambulance is even in sight.
PulsePoint doesn’t replace dispatched responders, but as fast as ambulances and emergency medical technicians try to arrive, they’re often not quick enough. Once 9-1-1 is dialed and the available crew is actually with the patient, it can be too late – making those that can arrive quicker a vital resource.
San Jose became the first area city to use PulsePoint in 2012 — the app’s founder and CEO, Richard Price, is from the area, having worked as an ex-fire chief of the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District. Since then, it’s caught on thanks to support from a local hospital and the results it provides. A local hospital is also planning a public registry of automated defibrillators through a new, related app, PulsePoint AED.
With decreasing local budgets for emergency response, increasing populations and traffic congestion, the demand for innovations like PulsePoint is greater than ever. By alerting off-duty first responders, medical professionals, and other CPR certified individuals of a nearby need, PulsePoint turns them into valuable lifesavers, all with the tap of a phone, making the app early — and effective — when time means everything.

Can Playing an App Enable You to See Better?

Posted on by robbie

To say that your eyes are weary after spending hours battling against the chocolate blocks in Candy Crush Saga is the understatement of the century. But just because squinting at your smartphone’s screen makes your vision feel strained doesn’t mean that all apps are bad for your eyes. In fact, an interactive gaming app developed by University of California, Riverside researchers actually improves your vision.
The app, which is called ULTIMEYES, improves the brain’s ability to process information that it receives from the eyes. To play the app, users are required to complete tasks such as clicking on hard-to-see targets. The more successful you are, the more points you earn. After using it, test subjects walked away with an improved ability to see in dim light and a sharper vision. Researchers used the improved stats to draw the conclusion that this type of technology could improve the quality of life for people with reduced vision as they complete everyday tasks like reading, driving, and watching television.
ULTIMEYES was tested on collegiate baseball players from the University of California who used the technology to better read pitches and improve their ERAs (earned run averages). According to the research recently published in the journal Current Biology, baseball players that used the app for 30 25-minute sessions registered a 31 percent increase in eyesight.
Perhaps players should sing to themselves, “I can see clearly now…”
Check out the video below to learn more: