HearPlanet Entry
Apparently, some one, as usual, has beaten me to it. Not long ago, I posted about talking lamp posts. These talking lamp posts would give nearby visitors an audio description of their location. I thought it would be a better idea to build that capability into GPS-capable devices.
They can build the ‘guides’ into the GPS devices. The new driving GPS devices allow users to import audio guides that are triggered as you near a location with a description. Why not add these to the pedestrian GPS devices?
It could be a grass roots effort, like a Wikipedie-esque WikiAudioEyesGuide. The GPS device could download audio clips for he local area (created by regular people) that would be triggered when the GPS device nears particular GPS coordinates. This way there is not extensive expense changing lampposts. Also, information can be updated regularly.
Well, HearPlanet is an iPhone app that reads nearby Wikipedia entries out loud. It turns out that Wikipedia is already a WikiAudioEyesGuide site.
HearPlanet delivers location information that really speaks to you. It’s like having a professional tour guide always by your side. Leave those bulky tour books behind and let HearPlanet show you the way. We make it easy to find what you’re looking for – fast!
HearPlane Home Screen - Chapel Hill
Though not designed as an accessibility app, HearPlanet has a great light-on-dark color scheme and reads out loud the relevant text entry from Wikipedia. Getting to the entry is a bit tricky as the font is small and fixed and you can not swivel to landscape mode. The key accessibility feature is the great audio playback. Ther is no variable spped control, but the entries are short.
Another great feature is that the app uses the iPhone built-in location detection feature to automatically find the nearest Wikipedia entries to your current location. I do not believe (but I could be wrong) that the iPhone uses GPS yet, so your location is may not be precisely determined. This does not matter yet, as the density of Wikipedia entries in hot that high. So, as soon as you open the app, you are shown a list of nearby points of interest (according to the interest of Wikipedia entry writers).
HearPlanet Entry Overview
Once you find the entry that interests you and tap it, you are brought to the entry page where you can either read or listen (or both) to the entry. The entry is read via a computer-based text-to-speech voice. Though not necessary, zoom (or scalable font size), volume control and auto text scroll with the reading would all be great additions.
To fully replace these talking lamp posts, wikipedia would need to be filled with tons of geographic entires for any spot needing a description. But that is free and open to everyone. So we all need to get out there and find these spots, then load up Wikipedia with all our descriptions. We can trun Wikipedia into that WikiAudioEyesGuide site.
Read more iPhone accessibility reviews here on my iPhone Access page.
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HearPlanet is a fantastic application, as full time travelers – we love it! It quickly gets us oriented when we arrive to a new city. On the newer version of the iPhone (3G), it is infact GPS enabled – so the locations it finds are very precise. The paid version of HearPlanet also includes great maps to show you exactly where the location is.
Also, not all of the locations are Wikipedia content, HearPlanet is constantly adding human voiced content as bloggers, tour guides and more submit content. For instance, we regularly submit content as part of our travels. You can search for ‘TFT’ (Tales From Technomadia) within the app for examples.