OpenWhite is a guide for iPhone to help the blind and visually impaired in the orientation and wayfinding within a structure, such as a school or a museum.
OpenWhite provides context information, depending on the position of the user, within an environment. The app interacts with a geolocation system, based on the iBeacon technology, so as to provide, based on the position detected by the iPhone:
• specific content based on the users location (where you are)
• descriptions of the surrounding environment (whats around you)
• signs of guidance and support along the way (for orientation).
The graphical user interface of OpenWhite is minimal, high contrast and readability, and has been designed for easy reading for the visually impaired people.
To allow the use to blind users, confirmation of commands is done by reading back the buttons, made through the voiceover iOS function, and tactile feedback (vibration).
The contents of the App are audio sounds, directional and informative, created with data and references that take into account the different person’s perception abilities.
OpenWhite is an expanding project: through an intuitive configuration environment, you can add an increasing number of maps for users of different cities.
This release, the first of a series of public maps that are compatible with the OpenWhite standard, contains contents made for the Varalli Institute of Milan, where they have been installed iBeacon devices that, using Bluetooth technology, talk with OpenWhite to provide users with selected content, according to the environment in which you are located.