Wayfinder Access v 1.24
New European License: £259.99, €379.99, $519.99 Buy Now
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New USA and Canada: £189.99, €279.99, $379.99 Buy Now
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Release Notes
1 Description
This document describes the new features and changes in the v1.24 version of the Wayfinder Access application.
2 Change log
Changes since last beta version:
• Improved GPS device selection bug (the upper pane of the application window was not redrawn correctly when device had been selected) • Forced refresh now works as advertised • The _No GPS positions available_ dialog is now only shown when GPS positions have been previously available • Vicinity settings are now stored between program sessions • Read delay in Locked Navigation and Vicinity Feed views has been increased so that TTS engines can finish reading them • The Info view now has the same list behaviour as the Vicinity list views (see section 8)
3 Hotkeys
In order to make the application easier to navigate a set of hotkeys have been added. They are all accessed using the numeric keys on the keypad of the phone.
The 1st seven hotkeys are assigned to views:
• 1 _ Start view
• 2 _ Info view
• 3 _ Vicinity All
• 4 _ Vicinity Crossings
• 5 _ Vicinity Favourites
• 6 _ Vicinity POIs
• 7 _ Vicinity Feed (see section 7)
The remaining two are assigned as follows:
• 8 _ Where am I (will show popup, see section 9) • 9 _ Refresh vicinity list (only works in Vicinity views)
4 Detailed information in Vicinity Views
Detailed item information for the vicinity lists have been added. The user can either press the Enter key or choose the _View Details_ item in the options list to access the information. The information is presented in a popup dialog format. Depending on the type of the item, different information will appear.
4.1 Point of interest details
The application fetches dynamic information from the server. The information presented consists of things like category, phone number, open hours and so forth. If a phone number is present in the information, pressing the green dial button will call it.
4.2 Crossing details
The roads that make up the crossing are presented, along with their individual angles (see section 5).
4.3 Favourite details
The name and the description of the favourite is presented.
5 Revised angle system
Angles used to be presented in the classic 0-360 degrees format. They were calculated based on the _fixed angle to north_ between the user and the object. This format is very accurate, but not particularly easy to visualize. For this reason a more flexible format has been added, which supports two different representations. The user can choose which representation to use under the Vicinity_ tab in the settings view. These settings affect all angle displays.
5.1 Clock based representation
This representation is relative and based on the heading of the user. 0 o'clock is straight ahead and 6 o'clock is straight backwards. Since the mode is based on the layout of a standard clock, the user can more easily get a feel for which direction to move in.
5.2 Direction based representation
The direction based representation is _fixed. It is similar to the representation in the previous version of Access (_angle to north_), but instead of using degrees it divides the interval in 8 distinct directions.
They are north, north_east, east, south_east, south, south_west, west and north_west. This system is slightly more stable than the clock based representation, since it is not directly dependent on the heading of the user. On the other hand, it is harder to estimate the direction to move in.
To make it easier the heading is also provided, and in the same format (_You are now heading North_ for example).
6 Locked Navigation View
Sometimes the user wants to navigate to a location discovered in the vicinity lists. If the target is nearby, the guide view can be cumbersome to use. This view presents the user with the ability to _lock on_ to a target, continually getting information about distance and angle to target and the users current location (based on _Where am I_). When the target has been reached, the user is notified. This view can be accessed by selecting _Lock to_ in the options menu of the vicinity lists.
7 Vicinity Feed View
This view is for the user who wishes to get an understanding about the closest nearby items. It removes some of this responsibility from the traditional vicinity lists (see section 8). It presents the users current location (based on _Where am I_) and a list of items (sorted by distance) which is read in entirety. This is not like the vicinity lists, where only the selected item is read. The list is continually updated. There are two output modes that determines the contents of the item lists. The output mode can be selected under the _Vicinity_ tab in the settings view. For the POI items category information is also displayed.
7.1 Concise output mode
In this mode, a maximum of three items are read. It tries to print _one of all types_, so that there is one crossing, one favourite and one POI. If no crossing or no favourite can be found within the cut-off limit, their entries are replaced with a POI item (if there is one available).
7.2 Verbose output mode
In this mode, a maximum of four items are read. This list is only based on distance, so the four closest items regardless of type are added.
8 New vicinity list behaviour
8.1 Updating
In the previous version of Access, the vicinity lists were dynamically updated. This behaviour can be hard to manage, especially when one considers how screen readers deal with lists. Since they only read the currently selected item, the user can easily be confused if the list is changed.
Navigating the list can also be hard since it can change at any moment.
Therefore, it has been decided that the lists will only be updated in two situations. The 1st is upon entering the view, which is natural. The second is if the user forces an update. This can either be done by pressing 9 (a
hotkey) or by selecting _Refresh list_ in the options menu.
Since the vicinity feed view now supplies the user with lists that are read in entirety, this change is natural.
8.2 Selecting
If the user pressed enter on an item in the previous version, the item was reread. Since this functionality is supported by the screen readers with other key combinations, this behaviour was changed. It now opens op a popup dialog with detailed item information. This behaviour is also more consistent with how traditional lists behave.
9 New _Where am I_-behaviour
The previous version of Access supported a rather primitive version of _Where am I_, reporting only the closest item. The behaviour is now more complete. Instead of displaying just one item, the program will detect all enclosing regions (cities, parks and so forth) along with the road (if any) that the user is standing on. The current direction will also be displayed.
No POI information is displayed, since such information is readily available from several different views. The presentation of this data has also been altered. Instead of silently outputting the data to the screen readers, the information is displayed in a popup-dialog. This dialog can either be accessed from the options menu in the vicinity views or by pushing 8 on the numeric keypad.
10 Minor changes
• No more abbreviations for units. For instance mi is now miles and km is kilometres.
• Latitude and longitude is now presented on separate rows in the info view.
• When no GPS positions are being received, the user is notified via a popup.
• Screen readers are now informed about the user going off track in the guide view.
• Altitude bug has been fixed (it always displayed 0 meters before).
• Removed display latency from vicinity lists (they are now displayed as soon as information is available).
• Speeded up the operation of the program by making sure that the map is only redrawn when in Map view. Should decrease overall battery usage considerably.
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