Mods - feel free to move this where it should be if not here. As I have mentioned several times, Marilyn and I have an adopted son that just turned 16. No biggie except ... Ryan has a bukkit load of genetic eye impairments he received from his birth mother. Nystagmus, Ocular Albinism, Photophobia, Diplopia, and some others. He has a visual range of about 8-10 feet. Being a teenager and wanting to do things, he walks. A lot. And far. And for hours. The problem is that he cannot see most street signs and numbers on houses as they are too far away. Would a personal GPS unit allow him to backtrack on his walks and get home? I know squat about GPS. Maybe even if it would tell him where he was so he could call for a ride? He has a Blackberry Curve phone and I know the other son's Storm does GPS. Would that work on a Curve? I just picked him up from one of his walkabouts. GPS would be easier i think in finding him or him finding home. john
What model curve is it? It seems the 8900 has gps, but the 8300 doesn't appear to have gps? I use google maps on my phone, which works great as a basic gps. And I get increased accuracy with the gps set to ignore the posistioning data from the mobile comm towers. Getting home would always be easy, as he could just save home as a favourite, or even just search for his home address if he was really lost!
Not that up on GPS applications that cater to the visually impaired (my iPhone's mapping app can be a bugger to read sometimes and I have corrected vision) Best thing I can think of for at least being able to locate him again is either find some kind of app for the Blackberry that will send an SMS with long/lat to your cell, or a purpose made device which when you hold a button (or something) it sends long/lat to up to 5 pre-defined cell numbers, maplin over this side of the pond sells them but I'd guess there'd be something similar if not better over there too. As for backtracking, I'd say it'd depend on his visual acuity as to whether most applications would fit the need. For the iPhone (sorry to keep using the iPhone as a reference but I have one, so I know what it can do more than a Blackberry) there's an app that can log walks and help backtrack etc etc but I don't believe it has any kind of aural notification like satnav etc. Dunno if this will be any use to you but hopefully it will.
And i forgot, that with google maps you can make groups, where if you and your son both sign in to google with a shared group, and he has his gps on, then you can see his location at all times, and if you have gps on aswell, then you can both see each other's posistion - when the gps is on anyway, so privacy is just a click away.
Im not sure a GPS would be easy for your son to read, although it would help him get to/from place to place. There should be a application for the BlackBerry, depending on what carrier you have. Another option would be Google Latitude (http://www.google.com/latitude/intro.html). Its useable on like any phone, I know for sure on BlackBerrys (Garage419 did a thing involving it with BlackBerry's). It will show locations of other people that he/you want to track (say a home location, your mobile location, etc). Very useful, especially when travelling. If driving I reccomend getting a laptop or small (mini-itx) computer and setting up Microsoft Streets and Trips with a USB-GPS Module... Either one of those will work. Google Latitude will work on both Phones and Computers - For Computers you have to add it to your iGoogle page(so you need a google account... YouTube accounts are enough credential to log in though )
A GPS taken from a car might work nicely - I have a Garmin Nuvi 250 that has a "walking" mode, and reads out directions as you walk/drive. It was only around $150 equivalent, so that might be worth looking into if nothing else suits.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Garmin-eTre...3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1238437291&sr=1-3 What about something like that or equivalent, if he carries a bag a lot he could always have it in there I guess
I'm gonna go out on a limb and possibly be a bit of a luddite here. What about a map? That's right, a real life, paper based, folded in your pocket map. Seriously - it's handheld, shows all the places you can walk (or at least ordnance survey maps over here do). You can often get tough waterproof ones if needed. It's what I use when I go on my wanderings, and I haven't been let down yet. Oh yes, and it doesn't run out of batteries or not have signal when you're in the middle of nowhere.
Except he said the kid has problems seeing thus would more than likely make it fairly hard him to backtrack whereas a GPS will tell you where to turn and when.
Did you even read the thread? I would advise some sort of device which which would share it's location with other parties. I know there are iphone apps which do this.
To be fair John hasn't specified what sort of precision that is; it could be big blurry shapes at 8-10 feet.
Explanations from Ryan is like trying to see through waxed paper at a normal room's width. He has never seen the top of a tree, never seen an airplane in real life flying. He does his on-line high school on a 47" Plasma TV with a computer program called ZoomText. It takes a normal page for us and converts it into 4 pages. His typing is very large 30+ point fonts but the software converts it back to a normal word doc. He cannot see house numbers from the front sidewalk. I've spent the day looking at hiking GPS units. Some nice Garmin units. It seems hikers and geocache types use them a lot. I'm still leaning toward a unit for him to be able to backtrack by himself. We have never treated his eyes as a disability although the state and Drs say he is legally blind. Too independent and we don't want him thinking we are trying to limit his lifestyle. john
I think the reasoning of a gps over a map is that he can't distinguish landmarks, like street signs and house numbers. So even if he understands the layout (which I'm sure he does, if he walks that much), he needs an easier way to know precisely where he is.
I found this at the 'American Foundation for the Blind' website. It looks interesting and provides vocal direction guidance. Reading this thread has made me realise that whatever my current problems are, I should be more grateful for what I do have. http://www.afb.org/afbpress/pub.asp?DocID=aw100202
I've got a Garmin etrex Vista HCX and it sounds like it will do what your after, as will most of the other gadgets in the range out of the box it has a good magnetic compass, barometer for altitude and during use leaves a bread crumb type trail on the screen. If you pop in a micro SD card you can easily load the GPX file (contains a list of coords making up a trail) easily import it to google earth and view where you've been. Th best bit however, is it's fairly easy to get mapping data off openstreetmap.org onto the device, so as well as the trail you also have an on screen map which make it easy to plot way points. If you want to go a bit further you can buy some nice OS maps too with height maps etc. I'm sure theres an American equivalent too. The downside, as you may have noticed is the screen size, the graphics on the screen do tend to be a bit small, my dad with average late 60's vision has trouble making out whats on the screen at times. There are a few different colour schemes, some easier to see than others. I bought the device as I tend to ride my bikes and walk fairly aimlessly, and while I'm fairly good at map reading (I have the scout badge to prove it) I've never really enjoyed pinpointing my location Anyway, I hope that'll help you judge if it would be useable for you son or not
That's one model we've looking at today. The screen size shouldn't be a problem as Ryan can see to read most books and he sent 2765 text messages from his Curve 83XX last month according to Verizon. Thanks for all the suggestions john
If he's got a Curve already and it is, by chance, the 8330 variant, it has a built in GPS. Download Google maps and you're sorted. A data plan, of course, is required, however.
Just found an advert for these... http://www.firebox.com/product/2288/SatNav-Shoes?itc=157&src_t=nwt&src_id=240 While they might not be hugely useful in your case, it might give some other people some ideas. RwD
