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A visually impaired man from Denmark has come up with a brilliant idea to assist those in similar situations. Hans Jørgen Wiberg, 52, was volunteering at a facility for the visually impaired when he noticed people using their phone’s video call facility to get help from friends or family when they were stumped by everyday tasks, such as checking the use-by date on a carton of milk.

“I thought, ‘What if they could ask strangers for help?’” says Wiberg. The result was an app called Be My Eyes (www.bemyeyes.org) that allows users to contact a volunteer on video. There are 450,000 volunteers registered with the app, helping 30,000 visually impaired people.

“It’s a way to be more independent,” says Anne Hansen. “When I’m cooking, I call someone to say, ‘How does this look? Does it look done or does it need more time?”

A ‘second set of eyes’ is just a phone call away