Author: Rhonda Eash

GeoReader Smartphone App

Rhonda Eash

The GeoReader App can be downloaded at Google Play (at no cost) or iTunes (for $2.99).  The GeoReader App accesses data all over the U.S., Canada and Europe, with more than 131,000 historic points of interest to hear.

GeoReader was able to upload the complete list of existing signs and structures from the Mail Pouch Barnstormers website database and their GPS locations. To each location, additional information in the form of a short “factoid” about the history of each type of vintage advertisement was added. Each point also presents a link to the website where a person can find out more about the particular site.  There are more than 1,100 new points added specific to vintage outdoor advertising of this type.

As a user drives towards a barn, the app, knowing its proximity to an approaching point via GPS, would say, for example, “Mail Pouch Barn, about 500 feet. Nearby is a Mail Pouch barn. When Harley Warrick, the last Mail Pouch barn painter, left with the painting crew for the first time, he didn’t return home for six months. This sign’s I.D. Number is 48-51-02.”  The App uses a text-to-speech program to say this out loud in a manner similar to the voice from a Garmin or TomTom GPS device.

There was no cost to the organization to create the App or to sustain these points. Points last indefinitely.

To download this app, and for more information about the GeoReader app including how-to demos and FAQs, please visit www.mygeoreader.com