GPS for the visually impaired

Since the Global Positioning System (GPS) was introduced in the late 1980s there have been many attempts to integrate it into a navigation-assistance system for blind and visually impaired people.

Corsair is a GPS for pedestrians. It allows you to discover places around you and take you there. A new way of guidance has been developed by using the smartphone's vibration feature to indicate the direction to follow. This solution is particularly useful for people with visual impairments.

Cydalion is a navigation aid for people with visual impairments for Tango-enabled devices. Cydalion detects objects (including their height), offers custom sounds, and has a personalized user interface.

When Apple introduced the iPhone 3GS in 2009, it was the first ever touch screen device accessible to the blind. iOS device usage has steadily increased among the blind and visually impaired population and numerous GPS apps targeting this user group have been developed since.

Ariadne GPS, developed by Luca Giovanni Ciaffoni, was released in June 2011 and was one of the first GPS apps specifically designed for blind and visually impaired users. It is based on Google map data and has the following features:

BlindSquare is developed by MIPsoft and was first released in May 2012. It uses data from Foursquare and OpenStreetMap and offers a large feature set covering the needs of blind and visually impaired travelers. It is based on Foursquare, Open Street Map, and Apple Maps data and supports the following features:

iMove has been developed by EveryWare Technologies and was first released in January 2013. It is unique, because it lets users record sound clips and associate them with saved locations. iMove offers the following features:

MyWay Classic was first released in January 2012 and is developed by the Swis Federation of the Blind. It has evolved into an app with a large set of features covering the needs of blind and visually impaired travelers. It uses Open Street Map data and includes the following features:

Seeing Assistant move is developed by Transition Technologies S.A. and was first released in March 2013. It is the only GPS app designed for blind and visually impaired people that lets the user operate the app through predefined speech commands. It is based on Open Street Map and supports the following features:

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