NaviLens and Zapvision are products consisting of two components. Each has a mobile phone app available for Android and IPhone. Both organisations offer a method of creating “Accessible QR Codes”. The QR codes created by each organisation contain more information than a standard QR code by adding additional encoded data around the outer edge of the QR code. NaviLens adds a rectangle of coloured blocks around the outside edge of the QR code. Zapvision adds 2 rows of black and white blocks around the bottom and right had side of the QR code. Although the QR codes developed by both organisations can be read using a standard QR code reader proprietary apps are required to access the additional “accessible” data encoded in the QR codes. As the two organisations use different methods of adding the “accessible” data the NaviLens app will not read Zapvision codes, the Zapvision app will not read NaviLens codes. Neither app will read standard QR codes. The NaviLens web site offers a method of generating 10 free QR codes. The Zapvision website does not offer any method to generate QR codes and a commercial agreement is required to create Zapvision codes.
The NaviLens web site https://www.navilens.com/en/ provides a web page that allows you to create 10 free NaviLens QR codes. To access the web page to create a NaviLens QR code the web page requests an email which then becomes your login to NaviLens. Once an email address is provided the NaviLens web site emails a 6 digit code to the user and the code must be entered to access the web page that supports the creation of a NaviLens QR code.
To create a code the user must enter:
Once created the NaviLens QR code can be downloaded as a PDF and printed or incorporated in electronic documents or web pages. The NaviLens web site retains a record of the 10 free codes that can be created by a user and it allows users to edit and change any of the 10 codes created by the user. The NaviLens Go app must be downloaded from the Android Play Store or Iphone App Store. It was tested on Iphone 7 and Android 13. It is supported from Iphone 6s and Android 7. Once opened the NaviLens Go app uses the mobile phone camera to display what is in from of the camera. There is no sound at this point to indicate that the app is working. The app does announce when the camera pass over a NaviLens QR code. When the announcement is made that a NaviLens QR code has been detected the user must hold the phone still for the app to read out the text associated with the QR code when it was created. The text associated with the QR code is also displayed on the screen. The bottom of the phone screen shows a text box 20 to 25 mm high with text indicating that the user should click the link to open the web page the QR code is associated with. There is no spoken text to indicate the user should do this so instructions on clicking the box need to form part of text to speech added when the code is created. If a user continues to move the phone once a QR code is detected the app repeats the announcement that a QR code has been detected but does not go any further than this.
The NaviLens Go app has the following additional features:
Although creating free bar codes limits the user to 100 characters text to speech this seems to be a limit imposed for free QR codes as scanning other codes on the NaviLens web site showed no limit to the speech dictated by the app when the codes were scanned. In addition to creating free QR codes NaviLens provide sets of pre-existing codes for things like schools, libraries, etc. One of the options is for Events. On downloading the Events pre-existing codes I found 62 useful codes for things like toilets, meeting rooms, stairs, etc.
The Zapvision web site has no facility to create Accessible QR Codes, a commercial agreement is needed to do this. The description below is limited to the Zapvision app. The app is available for Android and IPhone. The app was tested on Iphone 7 which should mean a 10-year-old or younger IPhone will run the app. The Android revision of Zapvision is harder to determine, the Zapvision app was developed in 2022. At that time Android 13 was the released, hence Zapvision should run on Android phones that are 4 years old or less. The app can be downloaded from the Apple or Play app stores.
On launch the app displays a text screen. The text screen displays the app name and a short descriptive text above four buttons. Two Blue buttons, Scan Codes and Browse Codes. Two clear/white buttons, How to Use and Settings. On selecting the Scan Codes button, the view available to the phone’s camera is displayed on the phone screen and the app emits a sonar like ping to indicate it is searching for a Zapvision QR Code. The app also lights the phone’s camera flash LED to help scan codes in low light. The ping and LED illumination can be disabled in the settings option of the app, selected via the bottom button of the app’s start up screen.
Whilst in Scan Codes mode the app announces that it is searching for codes. When the app finds a Zapvision QR code the ping changes to a click to let the user know a code has been located and the phone announces the description associated with the Zapvision QR code and displays it as text on the app screen. The screen displays the distance from the phone to the Zapvision QR code, the app announces the distance. A blue button appears on the bottom 1/3 of the phone screen with the words Product Information.
On pressing the blue button, a screen of text offering further information on the item the Zapvision QR code is attached to is displayed. The text at the head of the phone screen is a duplicate of that announced when the QR code was detected followed by a variable list of entries. The app announces the number of entries in the list, these can be seen below the heading. The text below the heading is scrollable and can be converted to speech by pressing on an item in the list. One of the items in the list is a URL to a web page where further information related to the item text can be held.
List items can contain links to sub lists, this is indicated by small > symbol at the end of the list. On entering a sub list the application announces the title of the sub list and the number of entries that can be found in it, as with the main list the text can be converted to speech by pressing on the list item. To navigate back from a list or sub list the user must click on the back arrow at the top of the phone screen. There is a short menu at the top right of the list screen indicated by the traditional three vertical dots. The menu allows the user to Bookmark the Zapvision QR code or Search for this code only. Bookmarking adds the information from the scanned Zapvision QR code to the Browse Codes function of the app. The Search for this code only mode ignores all other Zapvision QR codes except the one scanned when the menu option is selected.
Returning to the apps front screen the second blue button, Browse Codes, takes the user to a screen where the information from bookmarked Zapvision QR codes can be found. The bookmarks can be ordered by:
Each option displays details of Zapvision QR codes scanned in the order selected. Selecting a bookmarked code displays the list view of the item described in the previous paragraphs. The bookmarks are not retained if the app is closed or the phone’s power is cycled. The third selection from the front screen, How to Use displays a series of short videos with audio describing how to use the app. To move from one short video to another the user must press the “Next” button at the bottom of the screen. The fourth and final button on the app’s front screen is the Settings button. Settings allow users to highlight warnings. The user can select that the app should highlight specific allergies, product warnings or dietary requirements. Further options allow users to turn off the sounds, LED lighting and use imperial distances instead of metric.
Zapvision claim the app will detect their QR codes from around 50 metres, I have not tested this.
The sonar bleeps and clicks help vison impaired users locate Zapvision QR codes.
The Zapvision startup screen is not vison impaired friendly. A vision impaired users would need to know the location of the Scan Codes button to enter the scanning app.
The Zapvision app scanning interface offers more help to vision impaired users than the NaviVision app but other areas of the interface contains a lot of text that needs to be located on screen before it can be dictated to the user. A vison impaired user would need help on first use of the device and practice to become a confident user.
Zapvision has no means of creating free Zapvision QR codes so a commercial agreement would need to be entered into for their use in the exhibition. There are no prices on their website so contact would need to be made to discover the cost of such an agreement.
Both NaviLens and Zapvision have mobile phone apps that provide spoken information when proprietary Accessible QR Codes are scanned. Zapvision does not offer the facility to create free Zapvision QR codes so creating codes for an exhibition will have an associated cost. NaviLens does offer the ability to create free NaviLens QR codes. Free NaviLens QR codes are restricted to 100 characters test to speech when they are created. The NaviLens app enters scanning mode on startup. The option to enter scanning mode must be selected from the Zapvision startup screen. NaviLens allows a URL link to a web page to be selected directly from the scanning screen. To access a URL from the Zapvision app the “Product Information” option must be selected from the scanning screen and the user must then select the URL from a list of information to access the linked web page. The Zapvision app provides sound effects to help vison impaired user find their QR codes. NaviVision does not offer this level of help to vision impaired users to locate their QR codes. In NaviVision it would be possible to develop a zero cost series of Accessible QR Codes which announce a short description of an exhibition entry and allow users to navigate to a web page where a longer spoken description of the entry could reside. NaviVison also provide a set of free NaviVision QR codes for exhibitions with codes that announce things like the location of a rest room or exhibition hall.