VoiceVista Blog
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Phase 7: Updates for Users
Mar, 31, 2025
- New Features:
- GPX file import now supports both waypoints and tracks (1.9.1).
- Customization options for callout distance and close-by thresholds
(1.9.0, 1.8.9).
- Super category options for automatic driving callouts (1.8.8).
- Option to disable enter/exit sound effects (1.8.7).
- Query text history saving (1.8.0).
- Language Support:
- Multiple new translations added via machine translation: Hausa,
Southern Sotho, Swahili, Xhosa, Maltese, Tamil, Sinhala, Nepali, and
Kyrgyz.
- Updates to translations in Italian (by Simone Dal Maso), German (by
Sharo), Spanish (by Enrique Varela), and Russian (by Danil
Kostenkov).
- Other Improvements: General stability improvements (1.8.6).
Phase 6: Core Changes
Dec, 31, 2024
- New Features & Enhancements
- Query text history for future reference.
- Customization options for road name and house number callouts.
- Links to nearby intersections and points of interest (POIs) in the
Markers tab.
- New settings for controlling callout announcements and managing
intersection callouts (enqueue/interrupt).
- Simplified monitoring feature for better usability.
- New Translations:
- Albanian,Mongolian, Luxembourgish, Slovenian, Zulu, Uzbek,
Belarusian, Khmer
- Bug Fixes & Performance:
- Fixed freezing issues in certain locations.
- Manually toggling beacon audio effect now disables auto
unmuting.
- Other Improvements:
- New option to read street numbers digit by digit in callouts.
- Various UI adjustments including a change in navigation style from
"present/dismiss" to "push/pop."
Phase 5: More Translations
Sep, 30, 2024
- Dynamic location simulation Are you tired of being stuck in one
place while exploring virtual worlds? The latest update introduces
dynamic location simulation. By importing GPX files, you can now trace
your virtual avatar's path along real-world routes, providing a more
immersive and realistic experience.
- Automatic beacon sounds No more missed opportunities! With a new
setting, your beacon sound effects will automatically unmute when you
enter their range. Stay tuned in and never miss a valuable item or
hidden treasure again.
- Road name announcements Navigating unfamiliar virtual territories
just got easier. The VoiceVista will now announce road names as you
encounter them, helping you stay oriented and find your way with
confidence.
- Location explorer enhancements The functionality of the location
explorer UI expanded. You can now access markers and routes directly
from the explorer, making it easier to plan your virtual
adventures.
- Accurate distance measurements Rounding for distance values in
callouts eliminated, ensuring precise and accurate information for your
virtual travels.
- Expanded language support Addition of several new languages to
VoiceVista: Afrikaans, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bosnian, Estonian,
Filipino, Icelandic, Irish, Kazakh, Latvian, and Lithuanian. This means
even more users can enjoy our virtual world in their native tongue.
Phase 4: Users Feedbacks
Jun, 30, 2024
- Organization and Data Management:
- Separates routes and markers for easier management.
- Backs up and restores all your saved data.
- Simplifies adding current location and searched places to
routes.
- Filters markers for efficient route creation.
- Separates app data from troubleshooting tools for a cleaner
interface.
- Improved User Experience:
- Resets iCloud storage with a single command.
- Allows selecting the closest waypoint to begin navigation.
- Displays intersections nearby for additional actions.
- Puts the app to sleep on iPhone directly from Apple Watch.
- Shows relative directions for places, markers, and
intersections.
- Sorts places and markers based on distance.
- Streamlines marker editing with a "clear all" button.
- Advanced Features and Customization:
- Fixes issues with marker notes and information.
- Tailors automatic voice alerts based on activity (walking, driving,
etc.).
- Introduces a standalone Apple Watch app for navigation alerts.
- Streamlines exporting, importing, backing up, and restoring
data.
- Allows customization of location point categories.
- Fixes automatic callouts for specific locations like bus stops.
- Provides options to:
- Control trigger ranges for automatic alerts.
- Adjust next waypoint notification distance.
- Learn how point of interest categories are created.
- Match sound effects to different categories.
- Define turn proximity detection distance.
- Offers route calculation with alternatives.
- Allows avoiding tolls and highways during route planning.
- Provides options to disable sound effects.
- Introduces a new "Pedestrian Crossings" category for
customization.
Phase 3: High Customization
Mar, 31, 2024
- Apple Watch support for accessing surrounding callouts and
controlling beacons without using iPhone.
- Pin markers to the top for quick access to frequently used
markers.
- Include category information, web links, and telephone numbers for
Points of Interest.
- Automatically stop the beacon after moving away is detected.
- Virtual Location Explorer allows teleporting between intersections
and places.
- Call out markers and places ahead, as well as intersections nearby
and ahead. Exclude unnamed roads from intersections.
- Numerous UI enhancements, such as waking up by pressing the play
button on the headphone, a mute all button on the home page, double-tap
to hear GPS information, a quick button to delete the last breadcrumb
marker, removing marker prefix accessibility label in the Markers tab,
creating a route directly to a marker or place, and location monitoring
improvements.
Phase 2: More New Features
Dec, 23, 2023
- Different speech speed in vehicle and on foot
- Split on/off for intersection and transportation
- Overture map data: California 1.4M, Germamy 3M, United Kingdom 2.5M,
Japan 2M
- Open street map tram stop data
- Places offline searching and marker filtering
- Wizard style UI for turn-by-turn navigation parameters
- Alert distance setting for each marker individually
- Degrees direction stylee
- Nudge marker location
- Option to disable beacon sound effect
- GPS information callouts
Phase 1: New Features
After Resurrection
Oct, 27, 2023
- Transitioned the user interface style from Windows Phone to iOS,
including avoiding
the use of a tab bar for providing actions.
- Integrated more place data from Apple Maps to provide users with
additional location information and options.
- Introduced the ability to manually trigger the "Hear Intersection
Ahead" command on the first tab or hear about the next intersection
while in a vehicle.
- Enabled turn-by-turn navigation instructions for a single audio
beacon or a route with numerous waypoints.
- Implemented street name callouts to help users become familiar with
the region, even indicating the house number they are located near.
- Expanded the range of methods for creating or importing routes,
including generating them using a navigation algorithm or importing from
a GPX file, with the most popular method being the Breadcrumb waypoints
mode.
- Provided additional methods for creating or importing markers, such
as pasting them from Apple Maps or importing from a GPX file.
- Introduced the option to add reverse waypoints for a new route or
append reverse waypoints to make the route circular.
- Implemented adaptive callout frequency for the distance to the
beacon, similar to a radar, resulting in more frequent callouts when
nearing the destination.
- Added callouts for the distance and relative direction to points of
interest or beacons, with the option to use clock relative
direction.
- Expanded the availability of Siri shortcuts for the most commonly
used commands, including "Start Route."
- Introduced more assistant commands for quick access to commonly used
features, such as marking or sharing the current location.
- Published a list of frequently asked
questions on the website for user convenience.
Microsoft Soundscape
Resurrection
Jun, 29, 2023
Microsoft discontinued the project Soundscape and made it open-source.
VoiceVista is licensed under the
MIT License to continue providing the service to blind and vision
impaired community.
Map data from OpenStreetMap are
licensed by Open
Database License (ODbL).
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