Seeing Assistant Go - user manual

Introduction

The Seeing Assistant Go app supports the spatial orientation of blind and visually impaired people. It provides information about the surroundings using synthetic speech, sounds, vibrations and pointing in the direction of the top of the phone.

Useful when travelling, but also for getting to know the area of unfamiliar places you are about to visit.

Two app modes let you customise the app to your liking:

There are a few things to keep in mind to make using Seeing Assistant Go convenient and safe for you:

As with our other applications in the Seeing Assistant family, we have also included the best of what we have in the Transition Technologies team in Go:

Technical limitations of the device

In most cases, the Seeing Assistant Go app is a valuable navigation aid in the field, making it easier to reach your intended destination. However, there are rare cases where the information provided by the app may mislead the user.

In addition to outdated or incomplete information on the OpenStreetMap map, there may be problems due to technical limitations of the device on which the application is running. These include inaccuracies in determining the user’s current geographical position and in determining the direction indicated by the top edge of a horizontally positioned device.

Positioning accuracy

Positioning accuracy depends on many factors, such as tall buildings in the area, general weather conditions, electromagnetic interference. It is best in an open space where the phone can receive a satellite signal without any obstacles. However, in places such as underground tunnels, car parks, dense buildings or trains, the satellite signal can be very weak or disappear completely. In such situations, navigation may give an inaccurate position or temporarily stop working.

‘Floating position’ is a phenomenon in which, although the user is standing still, the application shows a changing location and distance to surrounding points. This is because:

  • The receiver in the smartphone constantly receives signals from satellites, and even small errors in their calculation can cause slight shifts in position.
  • The satellite signal can reflect off buildings (the so-called multipath effect) or be disrupted by weather and atmosphere.
  • The phone may try to ‘correct’ the location based on data from the mobile network or Wi-Fi, which can cause slight changes in position.

The floating effect means that the distances to the points of destination in the application can change by several, and sometimes even a dozen or so metres, even though the user is not moving. When moving at a low speed, it can also affect the inaccuracy of the direction of movement calculation.

Some devices may limit the accuracy transmitted to the app when the app is running in the background, such as when the screen is locked. This is especially true when the power saving mode is turned on. If the app on your device reports low accuracy after locking the screen, it is worth turning off the energy saving mode in the smartphone’s system settings.

Device direction

A magnetometer is used to determine the direction in which the device is pointing. It works by detecting the Earth’s magnetic field. The accuracy of its readings depends on the absence of interference.

The following can affect the accuracy:

  • The presence of strong magnetic fields: for example, in trams, buses, as well as near speakers, metal structures, and even some items of clothing (such as belts with magnetic buckles).
  • Electromagnetic interference: this can come from high-voltage power lines, traffic or tram control systems, or the vehicle’s electrical system.
  • Lack of calibration or incorrect calibration: the magnetometer may need to be periodically reset by making a characteristic figure-of-eight movement with the phone.
  • Metal cases and accessories: some cases can negatively affect the magnetometer’s operation.
  • Shocks and rapid changes of position: can temporarily introduce incorrect indications.

It is also worrying that sometimes, after getting out of the vehicle, the smartphone points in the opposite direction for some time. This may be due to the ‘memory’ of incorrect directions or the magnetometer needing to be recalibrated.

The problems described do not occur often, but it is good to know that they can occur so that the information provided by the app is not treated as absolutely true.

Compass calibration

Modern smartphones often calibrate the magnetometer automatically, but in certain situations, manual calibration can help. For blind people who have no idea what the number ‘8’ looks like, the compass calibration movement can be described as follows:

  1. Hold the phone in front of you: in one hand, flat, with the screen facing up.
  2. Move your hand in horizontal, intertwining arcs: imagine that the phone moves to the left, makes an upward arc, returns to the right, then makes a downward arc and goes left again. This creates a smooth, undulating movement, as if you were swinging the phone in the air.
  3. When changing direction, twist the phone in your wrist: do not hold it rigidly. Let it rotate gently in different directions, as if you wanted to ‘roll’ it in your hand.
  4. Repeat the movement for a few seconds: 5 to 10 seconds should be enough.

Alternatively, you can compare this movement to stirring a liquid in a pot with a large spoon, but instead of circles, draw wavy lines through the centre.

First run

The first run of the application requires you to follow a few simple steps, which will not appear the next time you run it.

  1. Welcome screen of the app.
  2. Acceptance of the Privacy policy and Terms of use.
  3. Consent to access the user’s location information.
  4. Consent to access the location when the app is running in the background so that it can inform the user even when the device screen is locked.

Now, our adventure with Seeing Assistant Go can begin for real.

The next time you start the app, it will open directly to Home.

App basic mode

When you start Seeing Assistant Go for the first time, it will start in basic mode. This is a set of functions and settings that is ideal for first-time users of the app or for people who plan to use it infrequently and to a very limited extent.

Additional functions and settings available in advanced mode will be discussed later in this manual.

Home

The window you see when you start the app and which gives you access to the main functions.

The buttons on the Home screen are arranged in two columns on the left and right.

The following buttons are in the left column:

Buttons in the right column:

In the upper right corner of the Home screen and most other application windows, there is also a "Menu" button.

Where am I

information about the user’s location, e.g. the nearest address. In addition, this button provides information about the current accuracy of the geographical position, which is important for getting an idea of how precisely the device obtains the current location.

The "Where am I" button on the Home screen has the following additional functions:

Save current location

This action is available on the "Where am I" button on the Home screen. It opens a window in which the user specifies the name under which their current location is to be saved in the "Saved places" list.

The name can be anything, the place will only be saved in the user’s data, it will not be published anywhere.

After entering the name, confirm it with the "Save" button.

Save as nearest address

Adds the user’s current position to saved places, automatically naming it the nearest address. The current position of the user is saved, not the geographical position of this address.

The operation does not require confirmation with the "Save" button, so it is a faster way to enter the current place into the saved places. The speech synthesizer will speak a confirmation message: ‘Added to saved: (the nearest address will appear here)’.

If this address is too long or incorrect, it is possible to edit it at any time, for example, when you get home.

Share location

Action available on the "Where am I" button and in Menu. When advanced application mode is active, the action is also available on each place from the places list.

Opens the menu to share the user’s current location or the location of the place with the following options:

Area

Allows you to browse the places list near your current position.

After selecting this button, a list of categories will appear.

After selecting the category of interest, a places list will be displayed, containing places mapped on the map, assigned to the selected category and located within a radius of 1 kilometre from the user’s current position. This default radius can be changed in the "Advanced settings" window on the "Places & points" tab.

Categories group similar places together, for example, ‘local public transport’ includes bus stops, tram stops and underground stations.

It may happen that we are only interested in one specific type of place, for example, only tram stops. The "Objects" button at the bottom left of the area category selection window displays a list of all types of objects in the vicinity. Here, you can select the specific type of place you are interested in and display it.

With the "Sorting" button at the bottom right of the category selection window, you can change the sorting method of the categories: default, alphabetical, ascending, alphabetical, descending.

The five most recently selected categories will be pinned to the top of the category list so that the user has easy access to the ones he/she uses frequently.

Area data

Information about nearby Objects is retrieved from the application server. After downloading, it is saved on the device in the area data cache. This means that the same data does not have to be downloaded from the server again the next time the function is used.

Area data is used by the "Area" and "Monitoring" functions. Objects in the area are also taken into account by the "Search" function.

When you click on "Area data" on the "Area" button, a window with two tabs opens:

Downloading area data

Area data available in the "Download" window "Area data".

Useful for downloading information about the area of places you intend to visit in the near future where there may be a problem with Internet access.

With the "Download radius" button (10 kilometres by default), you can increase the download data radius.

The "Start" button starts the download.

The progress, the amount of downloaded data and the transfer speed are displayed.

When finished, a summary window appears.

Area data update

Function available in the "Area data" window on the "Manage" tab.

Downloads an Area data update from the server if one is available.

The server is checked for Area data updates every time the application is started. If new data is available, the application will ask you if you want to download it.

Places list

The places list is used in several places in the application:

At the top of the window, there is a place filtering edit field. You can enter one or more parts of the name or type of place here. If you have entered at least 3 characters, the list will be automatically filtered and will only contain places containing the words or parts of words you entered. When you clear the filter field, all places will be displayed. Press the "Clear" button next to the Filter field to quickly clear the Filter field.

The list of found jobs is displayed below the Filter and takes up most of the window. At the bottom of the window, on its left edge, there is a "Filter by direction" switch. It is disabled by default. When enabled, the list will be automatically refreshed when the device is rotated, containing only those places that are in the direction indicated by the top edge of the device.

The "Refresh" button, available at the bottom right-hand side of the window, allows you to manually refresh the list. If you are travelling and your location has changed while viewing the displayed places, you can use this button to display the places closest to your new location.

If the list was displayed when "Simulate location" mode was active, the "Refresh" button will disable the simulation and display the list of places relative to your current geographical position.

Activating a selected location from the list will perform the default action for it: "Create route".

Other place operations are available in the screen reader’s action menu or by pressing and holding the selected place.

Place operations

Area of the location from the area

If we select a location from the list of locations displayed in the "Area" function and perform the "Area" action on it, another selection of the category of interest will appear, followed by a new list of locations. If we now repeat this process and display the area of the next place, we will notice that the ‘Back’ button or gesture only takes us back one step, i.e. from the list of places to the selection of the interesting category of the second place.

This can be useful if, for example, you first want to display the public transport stops in the area of an interesting place and then check which shops are nearby.

On the other hand, having to go back through the areas of several selected places in succession to return to the Home screen of the app could be time-consuming and tiring.

The solution to this problem is the aforementioned "Home" action, available in the application menu under the button in the upper right corner of the window.

Another way to conveniently browse through the next places in the area is the "Simulate location" mode, discussed later in this manual.

Create route

Default action on the list of places, available after activating the selected place.

Opens a window for specifying the parameters of the route you want to set:

After tapping "Create route and navigate" button, if "Monitoring" is active, it will be paused for the duration of navigation. Monitoring may be distracting during tracking. This default behaviour can be changed in "Advanced settings" window on "Monitoring" tab.

The app will then calculate the route, display the distance and move to the route window.

Create route and navigate

Sets the route bypassing the route parameters window, using the last used or default route settings.

After activating this action, the application will calculate the route, announce its length and move to the route window.

Route window

The Route window consists of two tabs: "Points" and "Management".

The "Management" tab contains the following elements:

  • Name of the destination.
  • Route length.
  • Distance travelled.
  • Remaining.
  • Activate previous: button to return to the previous point on the route if the app has recognised it as visited too quickly.
  • Activate next: button to navigate to the next point if, for example, you have taken a different route and a point on the proposed route has been skipped.
  • Current point: Instructions for the active point on the route.
  • Recalculate and navigate: Button to force a new route from the current location.
  • Save the route: button to save the defined route in the "Routes" list.
  • End navigation: Button to end navigation on this route.

The "Points" tab, selected by default, contains a list of points (manoeuvres on the route).

The distance and direction to the active and first point on the list are given relative to the user’s current position. The distance and direction to the remaining points are given relative to the previous point.

Navigation

Route navigation works throughout the application, not just in the route window, so you can conveniently use other functions. It also works on a locked screen.

The button "Tracked points" changes to "Navigation" during route navigation.

When holding the device horizontally with the upper edge pointing in the direction to the next waypoint, a sound, vibration and voice message will indicate the distance to the next waypoint.

When the user moves, they will also periodically receive messages about the distance and direction to the active point: the closer the point is, the more frequently the message will appear. If the user’s position does not change, cyclical messages are not generated.

Once you are within 50 metres of the point, the decreasing distance to the point will be announced every 10 metres, without repeating the direction and name. This mode, called "Approach mode" in the application, can be turned off in the "Advanced settings" window on the "Tracking & navigation" tab.

Once you are within 10 metres of an active point on the route, you will automatically move on to the next manoeuvre, which will now become active.

This will be indicated by sound, vibration and a voice message.

Once the last Route point has been reached, Navigation should end, but it is possible that the app will recognise the last point as visited too quickly and the user will need to track it more accurately.

Therefore, Navigation is automatically disabled in the following cases:

  1. The user has reached within 10 metres of the last point and then moved at least 50 metres away from it.
  2. 5 minutes have passed since the last automatic notification message (generated only when the user is moving).

Navigation can also be ended manually at any time:

  • Use the appropriate button on the "Management" tab in the Route window.
  • From the action menu on any Route point.
  • From the action menu on the "Navigation" button on the Home screen of the application.

Tracked points

Tracking points works similarly to navigating to the next points on a designated route.

The difference is that the app provides the direction and distance in a straight line to the tracked location instead of to the next manoeuvre on the route.

This mechanism is useful when:

You can track more than one place: the multiple places you track will be listed in the "Tracked points" list in the order in which they were added to the tracking. When you arrive at the tracked location, tracking will automatically switch to the next location on the list.

The "Tracked points" window is identical to the Route window.

The list of tracked locations can be saved to routes using the appropriate button on the "Management" tab.

Tracking picker switch

Pointing in the direction of travel with the top edge of the device when tracking a point or navigating a route is very useful when walking to a location.

However, when travelling by car or public transport, it may be activated too often, especially when the phone is in a pocket or handbag.

To temporarily disable the pointing, use the “Turn off Pointing’ action available on the "Tracked points" / "Navigation" button. It can be turned on again in the same way when you reach the next stage of your journey where it will be needed again.

Details

Show details of the place. Details of places can be added by users who create the OpenStreetMap. These are various details about the place, such as: contact telephone number, website address or email, opening hours, Wikipedia link and similar. On railways, we can often find information about the track gauge, electrification method and supply voltage, which railway enthusiasts will appreciate.

The information, like the map itself, is created and corrected by the community: this allows the map to react faster to local changes, but the details presented may be out of date.

However, even outdated details can be informative: if the list of bus lines stopping at a particular bus stop has not been updated for a long time, the information about which direction the bus travels in from a particular bus stop is unlikely to have changed.

Details such as phone numbers, email and website addresses are clickable, allowing you to quickly make a call, write an email or open a website.

Tapping the coordinates of a place will copy these geographical coordinates to your clipboard.

Share place

Allows you to send a selected place in GPX format to another user of Seeing Assistant Go or any other application that supports GPX.

GPX is a worldwide standard for saving places and routes and is used in many navigation applications.

A standard system mechanism is used for sharing, which offers a wide range of possibilities to send a location to someone via a message or export it to another application.

Simulate location

An application set to this mode ignores the user’s real geographical position and behaves as if the user were located at the place selected for the simulation.

The information on the "Where am I" button will show the nearest address of the simulated location. Other functions such as "Area" or "Save current location" will also work based on the simulated, not the actual location of the user.

On the "Where am I" button, instead of the accuracy information, the following will appear: "Location simulation in progress.".

Reminder: "Location simulation in progress." will be displayed every time you return to the application window, for example after unlocking the screen.

There are several ways to end the simulation with the appropriate command:

Saved places

List of places saved by the user. As with other lists of places, you can filter places by name, by direction (by rotating the device with direction filtering enabled), and refresh.

An additional "Save current location" button at the bottom of the Saved window allows you to save your current location.

The standard set of place operations allows quick operations such as "Area", "Create route", place tracking and "Simulate location" of the selected place. It is also possible to remove a place from the saved places or to change its name.

Compass

Tool to get an idea of the current geographical orientation. For some Seeing Assistant Go users, orientation based on geographical directions can make it easier to understand space.

After entering the Compass mode, turn the device while it is lying flat.

The device’s screen displays the exact direction currently indicated by the Compass. The accuracy of the measurement is also displayed, but depending on the smartphone model and operating system version used, this information may be rather approximate.

Settings

They allow you to customise the application to your needs.

In the basic interface mode, in which the application works by default, the settings are:

Text-to-speech

  • Use screen reader when available: The voice output of the app can be done by the screen reader used. If the device is locked, the external text-to-speech engine set will be used.
  • Voice: Which voice output engine should the app use? The voices in all languages supported by the speech synthesis engine are displayed, along with information about the language spoken by the selected voice. After clicking on a voice, a message will be spoken using that voice after a short delay.
  • Speech synthesizer: which synthesis engine the user wants to use for Seeing Assistant Go messages.
  • Speed.
  • Volume.
  • Audio ducking: Enabled by default. The app may mute other sounds being played while generating messages. If you disable this option, app messages will be played at the same volume as other media.
  • Prevent Bluetooth headphones sleep: to save energy, the Bluetooth headphones used can quickly switch to sleep mode. The next voice announcement from your smartphone may therefore be cut off at the beginning because the headphones have to wake up. Turning on prevent headphones from falling asleep should solve this problem, but it may affect the operating time of the headphones on a single battery charge.

Notification methods

Seeing Assistant Go can provide the user with information using text-to-speech, vibration and sound.

  • Announce compass direction: Whether geographic directions should be spoken when the pointing mode is enabled in the places list.
  • Motion directions type: Natural directions (default), Clock face, Degrees, None.
  • Vibrate when exiting pointing mode: When the Pointing mode is enabled in the place lists or during place tracking, if the device is tilted 30 degrees from the horizontal, the Pointing mode is automatically turned off. This switch allows you to specify whether a vibration should be generated to signal this.
  • Sounds volume: Allows you to decide the volume at which all sounds in the app are played.
  • General: speech, sound, vibration. Notification methods for the entire app. For example, turning off vibration here will result in the app only signalling with sound and speech.
  • Compass: How the exact direction should be signalled in the compass function. For example, should a 45-degree angle towards Northeast trigger a sound, vibration or both?
  • Point: Notification methods for place tracking or route navigation.
  • Friend’s location: informs about pointing the direction to a friend in the "Locate friends" function.
Motion directions type

The app displays directions to places or points on the route depending on whether the user is moving or standing still. When the user’s position does not change, geographic directions are always given ("North", "Southwest").

When the user is moving, directions to places or tracked points are given relative to the current direction of movement.

They can be given in several ways:

  • Natural directions: "In front of you", "Right", "Behind you left"…
  • Clock face: ‘at one o’clock’, eleven and so on. In this mode, we assume that the user is always at the centre of an imaginary clock face that moves with them. If the location to be announced is 30 degrees to the right of the user’s direction, it will be announced as being at one. If 90 degrees to the right, at three. 90 degrees to the left: at nine. And so on.
  • Degrees: how many degrees to the left or right.
  • None: Directions to places are not provided.

If the user moves very slowly, the device can inform the app that no movement is taking place. The app will then inform the user about the geographical directions to the place as if he were not moving.

It can also sometimes happen, especially when moving on foot, that the direction of movement reported to the app by the system does not correspond to the real one. This is due to the ‘floating position’ effect, which affects the calculation of the direction of movement at low speeds. In this case, the application may for some time report, for example, a place that is actually Front left as being Front right.

In the "Advanced settings" window, on the "Tracking & navigation" tab, you can switch "Motion directions type" to always show geographic directions, regardless of user movement.

Units of measures

Allows you to define how the user is informed about distances to places, positioning accuracy, speed, altitude above sea level, and configured radii (for example "Area radius" and "Download radius"):

  • Metric (default after installation): meters and kilometers.
  • Imperial: feet and miles.

Backup

Allows you to make an external backup of the app data and settings.

In the window that opens, a set of switches allows you to specify the contents of the backup:

  • Routes: user routes, available in the "Routes" window.
  • Databases: point databases, available in the "Databases" window.
  • Large files: Should databases containing more than 2000 Points be included in the backup? These databases usually come from external sources, so it may not make sense to archive them. Instead, it is better to download the current version of the database from the source in the future.
  • Area data: cache of the "Area data" function. In most situations, it does not make sense to archive it, but in some cases, it can be useful. For example, when you want to transfer the Area data set to another device without Internet access.
  • Saved places: list of "Saved places".
  • App settings: Settings and Advanced settings, in addition to Sorting in place lists, the status of the "Number route points" switch and others.

After clicking the "Export" button, the "Preparing file…" window will appear.

When the Zip archive file is ready, the standard system sharing window will open, where you can choose where to send the backup.

The backup is restored using the data import function.

Restore default settings

If a user’s experiments with settings, especially advanced ones, have made the application difficult to use, restoring defaults may be a way to resolve the issue.

After clicking the "Restore default settings" button, a prompt will appear: "All settings will be reset to default values. Databases, routes and saved places will not be deleted. Do you want to continue?"

Confirming with the "Yes" button will reset the settings.

Monitoring

Monitoring is the automatic delivery of information about the environment. Every now and then, the nearest place from the category selected for monitoring is reported.

By default, monitoring is enabled and only Streets and roads are monitored. You can change the monitoring category to any other category that is more useful to you.

Instead of the categories known from the "Area" function, you can choose to monitor places in the "Saved places" list or places stored in any database from the "Databases" list.

Monitoring of streets and roads is active in parallel to most monitored categories. If the category ‘Railway infrastructure’ is monitored, railway tracks are monitored instead of streets and roads. In the category ‘Train travel’, railway tracks are not monitored.

Instead of the whole category, you can also monitor a selected object type, for example only a bus stop. To do this, select ‘Monitor (object type)’ from place operations in the place list.

The current Monitoring status is saved automatically and will be restored when the application is restarted.

The frequency of messages and other monitoring options can be adjusted in advanced monitoring settings.

Nearest road

This action is available on the "Monitoring" button.

The nearest road is announced automatically when a change in the road on which the user is travelling is detected.

The "Nearest road" command can be used to manually request the announcement of the nearest road. This is useful if the earlier automatic announcement was not heard.

Nearest place

This action is available on the "Monitoring" button.

The nearest place is announced automatically at regular intervals while the user is moving. The command "Nearest place" will announce the nearest place regardless of whether the user is moving or how long it has been since the last announcement.

Search

Allows you to search for addresses and other places.

The following are searched:

When searching for a place in the immediate area, you can enter part of its name or type (for example: pizza). When searching for an address at a greater distance, it is best to enter the full address (street, building number, city).

Below the "Place or address" edit field is a list of "Recent searches" containing the user’s last few searches. Selecting an item from this list will repeat the selected search.

Import coordinates from clipboard

Action on the "Search" button to go to the geographical coordinates contained in the text copied to the clipboard.

If the text in the clipboard contains more than one pair of geographical coordinates (longitude and latitude), only the first one will be loaded. If a link is copied that contains geographical coordinates, these will also be read. If the copied link does not contain coordinates in numerical form, but is encoded in the form of a shortened link, for example, it will not be processed.

After reading the coordinates from the clipboard, information about the direction and distance to this place in a straight line from the user’s current position is displayed, as well as the following actions:

Databases

Databases are additional point sets that complement the map data used in the application.

After selecting a database, a list of places located in the selected database closest to the user’s current position is displayed. If the database contains more than 30000 places, the list will display the closest 30000 places.

The following actions are available for each database in the list:

Routes

User’s route list.

After selecting a route, basic information about it is displayed:

Other actions for a route in the route list are:

Below the list of routes, there is a "Record route" button, which allows you to start recording your own route.

Route points

A list of consecutive points that make up the selected route.

On each of them, we can perform a standard set of activities, for example: "Area", "Nearest address" and so on.

The "Close" button closes the Points list window and returns to the information about the selected route.

Record route

A function that allows you to record a file with your own route, created during your journey to a selected location.

It can be useful in a scenario where a blind user of the application arrives at a place with a guide, recording the route from this trip so that they can follow it on their own next time.

Recording a new route can be started:

The application will ask for the name of the route to be recorded. If no name is entered, the route will be named after the current date and time.

The "Start recording" button starts the process.

The following elements are displayed in the Recording route window:

While recording the route, you can return to home and use other functions of the application. The recording of the route will continue in the background.

During recording, the "Routes" button in the "Home" window will change to "Recording route". Activating it will open a window with information about the route being recorded, and the option to pause and end the process.

Pausing and ending the recording is also possible with the "Recording route" button.

Data import

Files can be sent to the application using the Share system function. On the selected file in the sharing window, select Seeing Assistant Go.

The following file formats are imported:

Files can be compressed into a ZIP archive.

If the file content is ambiguous, the app may ask what the user wants to do with it:

Locate friends

This function allows friends to share their current, precise geographical location, which is transmitted every few seconds via the server. It requires constant access to the Internet and geographical location to function properly.

Useful when two or more users want to find each other in a large space, such as a large square or bus station. Due to technical limitations of the device, it will not work underground or inside buildings.

Location information is only shared with participants in the location session, i.e. Seeing Assistant Go users who have a link to a specific session. The session link consists of the session number on the server and random characters that act as the access password for that session.

Clicking on the link will open the Seeing Assistant Go application, which will display the question: would you like to join 123? Instead of 123, the number of the specific location session will appear. After confirming with the "Yes" button, the location window will open and the user’s location will be shared with other session participants.

On an iOS or Android device that does not have the application installed, clicking on the location link will open the app store page where you can download Seeing Assistant Go.

The link does not work on computers or devices with operating systems other than iOS and Android.

When you click the "Locate friends" button on the main screen, a window will open with the following elements:

Locating

The active session screen for locating friends.

It contains the following elements:

  • Where am I: information about the user’s location.
  • Positioning accuracy: information about the accuracy of the user’s positioning.
  • Waiting for friends…: a message displayed when no friends have joined the locating session yet. When a new participant joins the session, this will be announced with an appropriate message. This behaviour can be changed in the location settings.
  • Display me as xx: this button allows you to change how you will be displayed to other participants in the locating session.
  • Where is my friend: Button used to download the address of the friend being located closest to your location.
  • Distance to the located friend and their activity time.
  • Accuracy of friend positioning.

When at least two people other than the user join the location session, "User list" will also be displayed: a list of all participants in this location session. Clicking on the button with the friend’s name sets that friend as active in the location session. Information about the friend’s distance from the user, which is announced automatically, and the functions of the buttons described above will apply to the active friend. Actions on friend buttons allow you to perform additional operations.

The following elements are available at the bottom of the location window:

  • Pointing: a switch that determines whether, after pointing the top edge of the device in the direction of the friend being located, their distance and direction should be spoken aloud.
  • Add to favorites: the ability to save the current location session to your favourites. If other participants also save this session, there will be no need to create a new one and send a link to it in order to locate each other in the future. If the session has already been saved to favourites, the button will be inactive.
  • Share: option to share a link to the location session.
  • End locating: ends the user’s participation in the friend location session. If the user has not ended the location session with this button and has moved to the main screen or other app functions, the friend location session will continue to run in the background. This allows you to use all Seeing Assistant Go functions while locating friends.

During location tracking, the "Locate friends" button on the main screen contains the following actions:

Actions on friends buttons

The following actions are available on the ‘Where is my friend’ button and on the session participants buttons in the "User list" list:

  • Area: option to display places in the friend’s vicinity.
  • Create route: option to start navigating to the friend. If you set a route and your friend changes their location, the route will not be updated.
  • Where is my friend: action available on buttons from the "User list" list.

Help

The "Help" button in the "Home" window displays a menu with the following functions:

Advanced mode of the application

Contains extended functions and settings to customise Seeing Assistant Go even more to your specific requirements.

Can be enabled with the "Advanced mode" switch in the "Settings" window.

When enabled, the following changes are made to the app:

Advanced settings

Window accessible via the "Advanced settings" button in the "Settings" window or by clicking the "Settings" button.

It is divided into five tabs:

Tracking & navigation

Advanced settings for place tracking and route navigation.

  • Approach mode: switch, on by default. In approach mode, once within a radius of 50 metres of a point, only the decreasing distance to the point will be announced every 10 metres, without repeating the direction and name.
  • Point radius: default 10 metres. Defines the distance at which a specific point will be marked as visited by the application and the transition to the next tracked point or Route point will take place.
  • Recurring announcements: Enabled by default. Enables or disables periodic notifications. If disabled, only messages about entering the radius of a point will be generated. If "Approach mode" is enabled, messages about approaching a point will also be generated.
  • Min message interval: default 15 seconds. Cyclic messages about the tracked point will be generated no more often than this setting. The further away the user is from the tracked place, the less frequent the messages will be.
  • Direction relative to movement: turned on by default. When this switch is active and the user moves, directions to places will be presented to him/her relative to the current direction of movement. For example: "Front left", or ‘30 degrees to the right’, depending on the selected "Motion directions type" option.

Places & points

Advanced settings for places list and points from databases.

  • Object presentation: by default ‘Name, type’. The name of the place will be spoken or displayed before its type. After switching, the type of the place will be presented before its name.
  • Area radius: by default 1 kilometre. Specifies the radius for displaying places in the "Area" function. The larger this radius, the longer it may take to load the information. The radius also affects memory usage: with a radius of 1 kilometre, places from an area of 4 square kilometres are loaded, and with a radius of 5 kilometres, places from an area of 100 square kilometres are loaded.
  • Auto-read first list item: disabled by default. When turned on, the app will tell the screen reader to automatically read out the first point on the places list.
  • Filter by direction: disabled by default. Specifies the default state of the "Filter by direction" switch on place lists. When enabled, filtering will be active by default on every place list. Setting the top edge of the phone in the direction of interest will display a list of places only in that direction.
  • Default action on tap: default: "Create route". Action for a place in the list of places, available after activating the place. Other actions are available as operations of the selected place.

Advanced settings: Monitoring

Advanced settings for the "Monitoring" function.

  • Object presentation: default ‘Name, type’. The name of the place will be spoken by the monitoring function before its type. After switching, the type of the place will be spoken in monitoring before its name.
  • Monitoring while tracking: default "Stop". Determines the behaviour of the app when monitoring is active and place tracking or route navigation has started.
  • Always ask: A question will appear to turn off monitoring.
  • Keep enabled: Monitoring will be enabled during navigation & tracking, no prompt will appear.
  • Stop: Monitoring will be automatically disabled during Tracking & navigation.
  • Auto road announcements: Enabled by default. When a new route is detected along which the user is travelling, it will be announced by the monitoring function. Regardless of the status of this switch, the current route can be heard using the "Nearest road" action on the "Monitoring" button.
  • Monitoring angle: 360 degrees by default. If this angle is reduced, Monitoring will only announce places in front of the user within the range depending on the selected Monitoring angle. For example, if you select an angle of 30 degrees, only places up to 15 degrees to the right or left of the user’s current direction of travel will be monitored.
  • Notify when within place radius: turned on by default. The place will be announced when we have reached a distance of radius of the monitored place from it, regardless of whether it was already announced when the user was further away. It will also be announced when we have already passed it and are still within its radius.
  • Speed-adaptive place radius: turned on by default. When active, the user’s speed is taken into account when determining the radius of the monitored place:
    • Speed above 40 km/h: radius 50 metres.
    • Speed between 20 and 40 km/h: radius 30 metres.
    • Speed below 20 km/h: radius 10 metres.
  • Place radius: 10 metres by default. Allows you to specify a fixed Place radius when "Speed-adaptive place radius" is disabled.
  • Monitoring radius: 1 kilometre by default. Places within this radius from the user’s current position are included in the Monitoring function.
  • Recurring announcements: Enabled by default. Enables or disables monitoring announcements. If disabled, only announcements about entering the radius of a location will be generated. If "Auto road announcements" is enabled, route change announcements will still be generated. Cannot be disabled if "Notify when within place radius" is disabled.
  • Min message interval: 10 seconds by default. Maximum frequency of monitoring messages. The further away the monitored point is, the less frequently messages are generated.

Advanced settings: locate friends

Settings for the "Locate friends" function.

  • Notify about changes in your friend’s location accuracy: Enabled by default. Allows you to decide whether you want to be notified of changes in the positioning accuracy of a located friend. If disabled, positioning accuracy will only be available on the locating screen.
  • Notify that a friend has changed their name: Enabled by default. Allows you to decide whether you want to be notified of a friend’s nickname change.
  • Notify that a friend has joined: Enabled by default. Allows you to decide whether you want to be notified when a new friend joins the locating session.
  • Recurring announcements: Enabled by default. Enables or disables locating messages. If enabled, you will be automatically notified of the distance to the friend being located.
  • Min message interval: 15 seconds by default. The maximum frequency at which locating messages will be generated. The further away the friend being located is, the less frequently messages will be generated.

Other

Other advanced settings.

  • Announce positioning accuracy changes: Disabled by default. Not only does it announce the current positioning accuracy after a change, but it also announces the accuracy value.
  • Use system geocoding: Disabled by default. When turned on, the "Where am I" function will work based on information from Apple maps (on iOS) or Google maps (on Android). Turning on this switch may be useful in areas where Apple or Google maps provide better address information than OpenStreetMap.
  • Messages during low accuracy: Enabled by default. When disabled, periodic messages about place tracking, route navigation, or monitoring will not be spoken when positioning accuracy is low.