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Using the GPS (Global Positioning System), blind people can now obtain detailed information about their environment with the aid of smartphones, note takers and stand-alone devices. But the system is unsuitable for providing detailed navigation information in-doors.

The developers of the popular BlindSquare iOS app are seeking to solve that problem with a system they call BPS, the BlindSquare Positioning System.

In his book “iOS 7 Without the Eye”, Jonathan Mosen predicted that iBeacons had the potential to dramatically improve the information blind people receive about the built environment, if a developer took the technology and used it for that purpose. BlindSquare have made that possibility an impressive reality.

Jonathan Mosen speaks with Thomas Bryan of the Blind Foundation in New Zealand about the Foundation’s work with the Wellington Regional Council to facilitate a comprehensive roll-out of BPS in Wellington’s central business di [...]