A Georgia Tech grad student found himself in a compromising position after he lost his smartphone. Vincent Martin is blind and his phone has special software that allows him to interact via voice recognition. Last friday he had to make a special trip to the veterinary clinic to allow his guide dog Karson to undergo a series of diagnostic tests. Normally Martin would take the bus to Georgia Tech, where he is a computer science major, but he cannot ride the bus alone. Without his K-9 partner he was resigned to a cab for transportation.
Upon exiting the cab and arriving at the college, Martin noticed his iPhone was no longer attached to his waste in the holster. By this time the cab had already left the campus. Somehow He managed to contact his friend Synge Tyson to tell her what happened. Synge had an excellent idea, she used her iPad to locate his iPhone. The only problem is that Synge is visually impaired herself, and is classified as legally blind. They used a magnifying glass to view the signal on the tablet and came to a conclusion about the device.
Tyson Comments on the event:
“It would change locations and I said, ‘your phone has gotta still be in this taxi because it’s a taxi pattern’,”
The couple did the next logical thing, they contacted the cab company who provided outstanding customer service by doing nothing. Of course, why would you help two blind people find an expensive device that helps them navigate the world? Customer service is horrible now days. Next they tried the police department. Again, no help. Unless you are the victim of theft or have been attacked they will not get involved.
The next day Martin’s brother drove the two of them around with their iPad and magnifying glass tracking the signal. The trail led them to the cab driver’s home. He had the device.
Martin comments:
“He was flabbergasted, he didn’t even know it was a phone; I really don’t think he had any idea what was going on.”
The phone was recovered and Martin has his lifeline to the world back on his hip. It’s crazy that two visually impaired people had to investigate the incident themselves and that the cab company couldn’t take care of this for them.
Synge elaborates:
“An everyday person like myself can help my friend, who’s blind, find his phone; I thought it was just wonderful,”
The technology in the iPad and iPhone made it possible for blind leading the blind to achieve better results than any customer service could provide. I am impressed.
Here’s a video about the incident featuring Vincent Martin, his dog Karson, and Synge Tyson provided by News 11: