SeeingAssistant-Move LITE

Submitted by on and last modified on 4 October, 2017

Category: 

Description of App: 

SeeingAssistant-Move LITE is an application developed by Transition Technologies S.A. in order to support blind and visually impaired people in everyday life. Aplication provides advanced geo-location and navigation features as well as current weather reports.

SeeingAssistant-Move has been developed in close co-operation visually impaired people in order to address their needs as well as possible. Features:
  • route planning
  • support for LoadStone and OpenStreetMap POIs text databases
  • advanced neighborhood scanner with world directions
  • searching for location
  • where am I functionality
  • route recorder
  • sharing points
  • entering text by voice
and fully operational by voice commands! The voice commands functionality is free until the end of May 2013 - in the next updates it will be available as In-App purchases.  Make sure to check the tutorial on:http://www.apps.tt.com.pl/seeingassistant/move/index_en.html to learn how to use our software.Please bear in mind that this application uses background updates to track the location even when minimized. Continued use of GPS running in the background can significantly decrease battery life.LITE version provides limited functionality in terms of number of speech recognition requests per day, number of saved tracks, number of user points and active databases, lack of Dropbox integration.Application uses internet for many of its functions. Depending on configuration of your device you may be charged for internet connection or data transmission. You need to remember that application uses GPS, Apple location services, and databases imported by the user as the source of location data. You need to use SeeingAssistant-Move with care, taking these limitations in consideration. Producer of application does not have any responsibility for any costs or damages which may be the result of using SeeingAssistant-Move or which are caused by its limitation.

Apple Watch Support: 

Not Known

Version: 

1.7

Free or Paid: 

Free

Device(s) App Was Tested On: 

iPhone

Accessibility Comments: 

App designed for visually impaired users. Fully accessible.

VoiceOver Performance: 

VoiceOver reads all page elements.

Button Labeling: 

All buttons are clearly labeled.

Usability: 

The app is fully accessible with VoiceOver and is easy to navigate and use.

App Store Link: 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/seeingas...

Developer's Website: 

http://www.apps.tt.com.pl/seeingassistant/move/index_en.html

Developer's Twitter Username: 

@SeeingAssistant

User Options

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2 AppleVis user(s) have recommended this app.
Artur and iAccessibility.pl

17 Comments

#1 Previously known as VirtualEye-MoveAssistant LITE

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Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

It appears that this is the new name for what was previously called "VirtualEye-MoveAssistant LITE" (now removed from the App Store). So, it might be useful to repost what AnonyMouse had to say about version 1.1.469 of that flavour of the app:

At first, I was very excited to play with this. It almost sounded like if I dare to use the word Breadcrumbs? or even has some features of the popular Ariadne GPS? I admit when I first used this app. I was completely perplexed in how to use it. Not a very straight easy thing to understand at all. First, to note that it has no map, POI, or routes built-in. However, it claims you can download the OpenStreetMap of your area you wish to use as for the bases. So after sometime searching through the Internet I was able to find my state and was able to download it. Put it on to my device. Went in to the app. It was able to recognize the file. I even got it load up but failed to see anything. No maps nor no POI. I tried and tried many other things. Still couldn't find a way to make it work. They have some built-in cities throughout in Europe like London for example. So I wonder if those actually work? The Voice Command, Weather, Where am I? are all pretty easy to use and understand. However, setting up my POI is very confusing. I also don't understand the Toute. Which by the way this app is a Lite version. So you are limited in making one route and a limited number of Voice commands. If you want to upgrade you will be out of luck. The upgrade is currently not available. After some time. I was able to see that I could mark some of my POI and was able to understand that I can turn on this mode where you can scan the area. As you move around in a circle it will tell you what direction you are facing and where the close POI are at. I like that. So it pointed the way of where I could find our Complex Trash Depot for example and how far it was. It has some settings you will need to make changes to reflect to be more of a help. So I had it to sense and alert me when I got closer to a spot before alerting me. Otherwise it was really far away when it alerted me. It won't tell you what direction you have to go so there is no turn by turn navigation of any sort or least I didn't see anywhere to do that. So technically, I could leave say Cheese Crumbs of all of the places and spot I wanted to be alerted when I approach them. So it will say the distance and count down the distance as I got closer to a particular PIO of choice. All of the measurements are in meters and there is no way to change this to feet for those in the States. So after messing with it for about 3 weeks. I am no closer than I was when I got it. So by all means give this a try! It is free. You can try your areas by downloading the OpenstreetMaps. If you can figure this out and find it more useful. Please do leave comments here. I really do want to know how in the world you use this correctly! By the way the developer is from Poland I believe and their site is all in Polish. So getting help from the site is few and far in between. So Good Luck! Keep me posted!

#2 I like it

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I actually quite like this app a lot. It has similarities to my favourite GPS app, Loadstone, (a Symbian app), and indeed you can actually import loadstone databases according to the description. I have not yet imported a database, however I'm looking forward to it. All the other features of the app seemed to be pretty easy to use, although I also would like to see the option of having measurements in miles, yards and feet, as a lot of us in the UK prefer this also. Overall, I think this has potential. And any IOS app that is similar to lodestone I will always like.

#3 First SeeingAssistant Lite Impressions

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Though the ap is referred to as seeingAssistant (lite), once installed, it has the title of Move. I recall about 8 months ago discovering the free version under it's former name which I forgot and being, unlike other reviewers, quite impressed. I did not pursue utility to any great extent since at the time, there was no upgrade to a full version and no english instructions. The present SeeingAssistant (move lite) seems so much better and seems to have a well documented manual, We shal see after I do some studying and confirm that in fact there is a full version available before putting the stress on my tiny brain. I do like the use of ap related voice commands; we get 5/7 months of winter or at least uncomfortably cold weather where I live in Winnipeg which makes IPhone manipulation a seriously handnumbing experience. Carrying Iphone outside a warm place in this weather would be seriously silly. Well, time to study.

#4 Baffled

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Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Hello all, As my original write up that I had for this app is still mostly on the mark. Not much that I would change from the original observation of the app before they changed to their new app name. That alone baffles me in why they would do this. The changing around of the UI has improved and so has the tutorials for it. So I am glad to see that. Now even with the new name it still has the same few quirks with the app itself. I would be open for anyone to tell me and to convince me that I am wrong about my observation. A typical user will find the same problem as I had in searching for the maps that I needed to load in to the device. It isn't exactly the easiet thing in the world to do. I had once again tried my state of where I lived. Loaded it and once again I am left scratching my head. Nothing. No POI or anything. As for the Voice Command. Nothing has changed in how to use this. So if you are thinking that I can just pocket my iPhone in to my burly coat and bark out commands. You will be poorly mistaken. As you will notice. You actuall have to get that device out and double tap on that Voice Command button to say a single command. To use it again, just repeat the process. So this is far from being hands free. Now what I can say for this app is that you could easily make a particular route that have an assign set of points you have created. It can tell you the direction of where that POI is and the distance from it. So again this is not a turn by turn type of app. I suppose if you want to mark points along of your school campuses to a building. It could be used. It could allow one to let you know that you are on the right track. I will warn you this is not for the faint of heart. So beginners will have difficulties in using this app. It will take a lot of your time to have this set up as you like it to be. For now I will stick to my arsenal of apps that pretty much does the same thing. The iMove is almost similar to this but without the fancy Route, Weather and Voice Command. I think BlindSquare would also be an alternative solution. Plus, I will wait for the long awaited Breadcrumbs and the Seeing Eyes before purchasing any further in to the app. Would love to hear of the things I have covered here and along with Comment #1 in what you disagreed with. What have you found useful with it. How long did it take for you to established your first route Lastly, how successful you were for countries outside of Europe? I can only hope you had a much better experience than I had with it. Most of all. I hope that you find it extremely easy to use and that it is being used a lot in your daily adventures. So good luck with your quest and please do share of your experience! It is FREE with limitations in the Lite version.

#5 As far as I remember, this

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As far as I remember, this app is trying to be what loadstone was on symbian. I'll freely admit I've never seriously used loadstone... or this app, I only know how it works through a Polish podcast. That said I think most of the frustration people are finding here is you're trying to use it like google/apple maps or navigon where you have a preloaded map, enter your destination and you get turn by turn guidence on where to go. That's not how this app works. The idea of loadstone was that the maps were created by users themselves to fit their personal use cases (so you could mark where your house is or all of the buildings at your school, or any other landmark you think it's important). That's not to say loadstone didn't have premade maps with streets and poi's, there was a big community around the program and programs have been created to port Open streetmap data to loadstone poi's. The way you navigated in loadstone was that you could set your destination, but that would only tell you where your destination is facing relative to you and how far you are from it. But you can set announcements so you know what you're passing, and you had hotkeys to look ahead and to the sides. Then there was the shift to iPhone and all development on loadstone stopped, and on newer nokia devices with touch screens it didn't work all that well (at least not if you used Talks because it can't emulate pressing actual numbers on the keyboard which was how loadstone was used). So I'm guessing this app was created to fill this gap.

#6 loading POIs

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Hi, To AppleVis, AnonyMouse: If you have still have problem with loading POIs from file, could you send me link to the file which you are loaded to SeeingAssistant-Move. I will try check it. -- Regards Adam

#7 version 1.4 in AppStore

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App Developer

Dear all, There is updated version on the AppStore - version 1.4. What's new in this Version: - configuration of distance and temperature units - import of text databases from Dropbox (full version) - bug fixed We look forward to your comments and suggestions. Best wishes, SeeingAssistant Team

#8 Version 1.5

Submitted by on

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

What's New in Version 1.5

- bugs fixed- iOS7 improvements

 

#9 Version 1.6

Submitted by on

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

What's New in Version 1.6 - new function "Find address" on the Home tab - settings: notification interval for tracked points - vibration after pointing the iPhone in the direction of the first item on the list of tracked points, only works when screen "Tracked points" is active - possibility to select multiple items on the screens: "Bases list", list of points in route, "Routes list", "Tracked points", "Edit route" - "Add point" - added information about the city. - "Show neighborhood" - after refreshing the table, the first point on the list is read, even in exploration mode - new action "Show on map" - visualisation of the immediate vicinity of a point on the map - time limit for voice commands - ability to edit the automatic route and add points to it - confirmation when deleting a point - choice of order when tracking route, saved or reversed order - ability to manually add point to registering route, by shaking the iPhone when in Registration tab - changed order of buttons in Home tab - automatic route numbering now starts from 1 (was 0 before) - import zipped text databases, but only for files with extensions .txt.zip for Loadstone and .osm.zip for OpenStreetMap - automatic names for automatic routes, as current date and time

#10 Version 1.7

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Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

What's New in Version 1.7 - new interface for iOS 7 - changed the interface, less tabs, more functionality on the first tab - changes in the name of functionality - simulate location: from the saved, favorites, points, results of search - nearest OpenStreetMap points - download the OpenStreetMap database from "Database list" - import/export points and routes in GPX format - pointing direction: clock and geographical - configuration of compass calibration - configuration of approach radius - bugs fixed

#11 new version 1.7.1

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App Developer

There is updated version on the AppStore - version 1.7.1 What's New: - added Italian translation - additional directions in exploration mode - according to the user's feedback fixed compass behaviour in exploration mode - improved sending application logs by e-mail - bugs fixed Best wishes, Seeing Assistant Team

#12 version 1.8 and new features

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App Developer

Dear all, There is updated version on the AppStore - version 1.8. What's new in this Version: - possibility to use turn-by-turn navigation using external maps application - Apple Maps and Google Maps - new action "Edit point": view and edit the name and coordinates of a point, read saved accuracy - alarm for tracked points, new setting “alarm radius” is used to set how close to the point will be run alarm - added intermediate directions in exploration mode, e.g. north-east - simulating the new location does not require the stopping of simulating the previous point - visualization of the route on the map - database name can be changed - altitude above the level of the seas added to the GPS information - adding a route to the tracking points does not remove existing points from tracking - bugs fixed Best wishes, Seeing Assistant Team

#13 version 1.8.1

Submitted by on

App Developer

There is updated version on the AppStore - version 1.8.1 with German language.

#14 new version 1.9 - monitoring localization, speech synthesis

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App Developer

Dear all,

There is updated version on the AppStore - version 1.9.

What's new in this version:
- added monitoring localization
- possibility to use in application the built-in speech synthesis - only iOS 7
- configuration presentation of direction in stand and moving mode
- edit points from "Show neighborhood", "Find in databases"
- added activating/deactivating database by voice command
- adding simulating location in "Find address"
- possibility to add points to databases
- added application usage statistics
- route can be registered again from "Routes list"
- additional messages about possibility to download databases
- possibility to activate database after download from Dropbox, website or imported from e-mail
- changed way of importing Open Street Map files, less restrictions
- name of route and database can be one character length
- bugs fixed

Best wishes,
Seeing Assistant Team

#15 I think they improved the interface

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I believe some of the issues people posted about are no longer in the app. I found it very straightforward, except that the new information, like the new location you have moved to is nearer the bottom of the screen. All the buttons that don't change, "repeat announcement", "force announcement", GPS info", "show neighborhood", "nearest open street map points", "where am I", etc. are at the top of the screen, the first things you encounter when flicking.

When it updates your location that is read automatically, so you can keep the phone in your pocket or on your belt. When you save a point you can give it a name or just go with the address. I am starting to experiment with using it to navigate open areas and finding that helpful: if I turn off the automatic address announcement.

You can simulate starting from a particular point so you can fool with what's nearby even if you aren't located there.

To edit a point, choose the button for points. Then select the point you want and select the button for actions, then edit. You can tell it to tie or not tie that point to the nearest address, and change its name. This is helpful if you type in a quick name and later want to give it a more descriptive label.

It's very good at telling you where points are located in relation to each other, 4 yards at your five o'clock.

It also no longer is just stuck with metric measurements, you can also select imperial (miles and feet.)

Unlike the post from before, I had no trouble downloading a database (I assume this is an OpenStreet Map.) I followed the prompts which were clear about what I needed to do.

My only complaint is that the term "database" seems to refer to both points you create individually and downloaded points from open sources. I think the built-in help should define all the terms and clearly explain what the buttons each do.

I think this is a very fine app and it's becoming my favorite for walking around. I believe we've overlooked it in the past as a good navigation aid because it used to have a clunkier interface.

#16 If you purchase full version

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Once you purchase the full version, you'll have to create your points again and download your databases again. The lite version doesn't integrate with DropBox. But the full version does, and it can import Loadstone databases and checkpoints as well as several other point and map database formats from the internet. The Loadstone site has tutorials on how these formats work. For converting from many different formats to one that this app will import, I have found GPS Babel, an accessible open-source converter to be especially helpful.

I'll put links to these tools in my review of the full version, which I'm typing up now.

#17 version 1.14 - new features

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App Developer

Dear all,

There is updated version on the AppStore - version 1.14.

What's new in this version:
- added profiles of settings
- added categories for points from Open Street Maps
- added angle of monitoring
- configuration of shake gestures
- changed way for adding point to recorder route by shaking gesture
- fixed bugs

Best wishes,

Seeing Assistant Team
http://seeingassistant.tt.com.pl
https://twitter.com/SeeingAssistant
sa@tt.com.pl