Starting out with SonarVision is easy, but it takes time.

– A SonarVision user.

SonarVision’s objective is to guide you along pedestrian trips, with 3 feet or 1 meter of accuracy, using extremely precise geolocation systems.

Seeing SonarVision in action is generally a good starting point. Here is a short video of Alexandre, a blind french user, crossing Paris with the app. If you watch the video on Youtube, there is a full english transcript.

You will be able to do a trip with SonarVision only if the 3 following conditions are met :

1. You were able to download SonarVision on an iPhone.

2. A precise geolocation system exists in the area in which you wish to use the app.

3. Your trip was prepared in advance or can be generated automatically.

Availability and compatibility

SonarVision is only available on iOS.
Why? L'application SonarVision est-elle disponible sur Android ?

If you have an iPhone, go to the Appstore, search for “SonarVision” and download the app.

If you do not find the app, we might not have added your country yet. Please write us an email so that we can add it: contact@sonarvision.fr

If your iPhone is to old, you will probably have trouble making SonarVision run smoothly. Here’s what you should know :

• All SonarVision features are available on iPhone XS and newer.

• Some features should still work on older versions, but you must at least have iOS 16 installed.

• For a good experience with SonarVision, we recommend using iPhone’s 12 or newer, or iPhone SE 2022.

Precise geolocation systems

SonarVision’s objective is to guide you as accurately as possible to your destination.

Additionally to regular GPS available on your iPhone, we work with several other systems to locate you with the best possible accuracy.

The easiest system and the first one you should try is the Visual Positioning System or “VPS”. It compares images from your iPhone to reference imagery provided by Apple, Google or directly from SonarVision for indoor navigation. It’s accuracy is between 30 centimeters and 1 meter for position, and less than 1 degree for orientation.

You can learn more about VPS here : Le VPS

In some circumstances, VPS works poorly or not at all :

• At night, in particular on old iPhones.

• In parcs, forests and gardens with no reference imagery.

For this reason, we have made SonarVision compatible with RTK receivers. These receivers are expensive, much harder to start using than VPS, only work in certain countries, and don’t work well near buildings. That being said, they allow some users to go on trips which would have been impossible using VPS.

To understand how RTK works and where it is available, please read Le GNSS RTK.

Prepare or generate an ultra-accurate trip.

The last thing you will need to do is to prepare or generate a trip that is accurate enough to guide you along sidewalks, signal the start and end of crossings and steps, and announce your destination within less than 1 meter.

Here are the 3 tools we offer in SonarVision, each with pros and cons.

Automatic trips

If all pedestrian ways in your area are properly mapped on OpenStreetMap, you can generate really good trips instantaneously.

It is the fastest and most flexible way to create a trip, however you cannot customize the output of our trip calculator.

Furthermore, only certain cities in the world are mapped well enough on OpenStreetMap for SonarVision’s usage.

Here is a full article on how to correctly map pedestrian ways on OpenStreetMap in order to be able to create great automatic trips with SonarVision : Améliorer les résultats du calculateur d'itinéraire

We encourage you to reach out to your local OpenStreetMap community in order to encourage them to map pedestrian ways. The Contact Channels page should be a good starting point.

You can also purchase our Mapping service in order to get an expert mapping of your neighbourhood.

Prepared Trips

If you wish to customize your trips so that they better fulfill your needs, you can team up with a sighted friend to create prepared trips using our online editing platform. You will have to share your email and password with this trusted person in order for them to access your account.

This method allows you to choose the sidewalk you desire, where to cross the street, and to reposition your destinations exactly on the door or entrance you are looking for.

You can add new places and trips between these places directly on the iOS app. When you ask for a trip between two places, SonarVision instantly tries to generate a draft using an automatic trip; if that works, you can immediately use it without waiting for human verification.

Check out the following videos and articles for more details :

Full english tutorial playlist (work in progress)

La plateforme d'édition SonarVision

Créer un bon trajet

Recording a track

You can record a “GPS track” in SonarVision using one of our highly accurate positioning systems. This allows you to walk the trip a first, with or without someone’s help, then to transform this track into a SonarVision trip by associating places to the start and end.

We strongly recommend you ask someone to check and correct the resulting trip using our platform. Any small mistakes or geolocation inconsistencies might be reflected on your trip !

Apprenez-en plus en lisant l’article Enregistrer une trace

Conclusion

Now that you know about SonarVision’s main features, it is time to try your first trip!

Select your destination anywhere in the app, then the type of trip you want to launch. Scan the buildings or connect your RTK receiver and you are good to go.

At this point, you will hear beeping sounds: their goal is to align you in the correct walking direction. A beep on your left means you should rotate left, a beep on your right means you should rotate right.

Our generated vocal instructions will give you an idea of what awaits, 15, 50 or 100 meters down the line. However, it is the orientation system which you should prioritize if you wish to follow SonarVision’s virtual “guide rail”.

Finally, we strongly urge you to take maximum precautions while travelling and to give absolute priority to your Orientation and Mobility training in all circumstances. Be safe.