Novartis Launches App for Use with Smart Watches

Novartis Pharmaceuticals has released new features for its ViaOpta applications and the extension for use with smart watches. The ViaOpta app can be used with wearable devices, such as Apple Watch and Android Wear. It is a turn-by-turn navigation app available for a wearable device designed specifically for visually impaired people, providing voice guidance and vibration settings, which alert the user to upcoming intersections and landmarks. The users can ask for their exact position, add waypoints to a calculated route, and find nearby destinations or landmarks and save them as favorites. Users and their caretakers can also share and access a person’s exact location.

The ViaOpta navigation has a points of interest feature by which the user will be able to see points of interest nearby, divided into categories, find information on them and set a navigation to a specific point of interest. This also includes information on specific accessibility facilities around them, such as tactile pavement and crossings, traffic lights with sound (provided that this information is available on OpenStreetMaps for the area which the user is in). There is also extended map coverage. The app coverage has been extended to the whole world, although coverage is less in rural areas.

The ViaOpta Daily has a new object recognizer feature that identifies objects in the user’s field of vision when user points the camera of the device at an object. It also has a scene recognizer feature to allow the user to point the camera of the device at a desired direction or place and the voiceover will tell the user what is in front of them to help them navigate unfamiliar environments.

Source: Novartis

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