Lidar Eyes vs Candle

At our boutique NGO (Asociația unPi pentru Școlari, www.unpi.ro/english) we stive to build assistive solutions for all humans. This application is the very first step in designing a helpful guide for the visually impaired. Here we are using the latest hardware (LiDAR) and latest software APIs (Spatial Audio) from Apple in order to create a virtual guide, which would try to emulate a human friend of the visually impaired. Imagine that you are travelling together with your best friend and he or she is informing you about your surroundings, plus alerting you on the nearest obstacle in your path. Our solution requires a LiDAR sensor in your iPhone (iPhone 12/13/14 Pro), and for best sound experience: an AirPods Pro/Max in transparency mode. While our efforts are ongoing, we rely and ask your support plus feedback in building additional features (i.e. Computer Vision for iPhone without LiDAR) for this application or the upcoming ones. To free your hands, this application requires you to wear your iPhone on a chest mount holder, plus wear headsets with support for spatial audio and transparency so that you remain aware of your environment at all times. If you don’t have a chest mount holder, try to point the iPhone’s Lidar (back cameras) towards the path you’re heading when using the app Once you start Lidar Eyes Lite, you'll be able to hear a sound coming from the direction where the closest obstacle is located. For a better experience we recommend to download and select an enhanced or premium voice from Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Speech > Voice for your system’s language. For now, the application announcements are available in the following languages: - English - French - Italian - Romanian - German - Spanish - Chinese, Simplified

Candle helps blind and visually impaired people find their way. The app is built for VoiceOver from the ground up: large buttons, clear announcements and vibration instead of looking at a map. COMPASS • Direction by vibration: Candle vibrates when you point your iPhone north or in one of the eight compass directions, and announces it. • Compass to a destination: hold the iPhone in front of you – Candle tells you the direction and distance to your destination. PLACES NEARBY • Explore: cafés, restaurants, pharmacies, ATMs, bus stops, taxi stands, hospitals, public toilets, pedestrian crossings and traffic lights with sound signals – sorted by distance while you walk. • Radar: point your iPhone in a direction and hear which places are there. • Wikipedia: articles about sights around you. YOUR PLACES AND ROUTES • Save favourite places – from your current position or by address search, also by voice. • Walking navigation to saved places, with announcements you choose: detailed or short. • Location notes: leave a hint at a spot, e.g. "stairs after the door" – when you pass it with Candle open, your iPhone vibrates and Candle tells you the hint. Add a new one quickly with a long press on the Candle icon. • Share places as a link and receive them from family and friends. PRIVACY No sign-up, no ads, no tracking. Your places and location notes stay on your device. For maps, places and routes Candle uses open services such as OpenStreetMap. OPEN SOURCE Candle is free and open source: github.com/freegroup/candle Found a bug or have an idea? We welcome feedback – especially from blind and visually impaired users.