S1: Hello everyone! Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from
S1: May the 28th, 2024. I'm Stephen Jolly. Great to have
S1: you with us listening maybe through Vision Australia Radio, associated
S1: stations of RPA Australia or perhaps the Community Radio Network.
S1: There is also the podcast. To catch that, all you
S1: need to do is search for the two words talking
S1: tech and down. It can all come usually on a
S1: Tuesday afternoon just after it's been produced. Another option is
S1: to ask your Siri device or smart speaker to play
S1: Vision Australia Radio talking tech podcast Vision Australia Radio talking
S1: tech podcast with me, someone who knows all this tech
S1: stuff really well. Vision Australia's national advisor on access technology,
S1: David Woodbridge. David, let's start with the product minute from
S1: the vision store of Vision Australia. An old favourite of yours,
S1: but you haven't explained it for a while, so let's
S1: hear about it. The Bradley watch.
S2: That's right. So this is called the E one as
S2: in e o n e the E one. Bradley. Watch.
S2: The simplest way I can describe this beautiful tactile timepiece,
S2: because it sounds a bit silly to call it a
S2: a watch because it's smaller than a watch is, it's
S2: got two ball bearings and you've got one ball bearing
S2: on the face, which is actually your minutes, and you
S2: got a ball bearing on the side that, again, is
S2: in a course in a slot, because the ball bearing
S2: has to sort of roll around if you like, and
S2: that does the hours. And then on the face of
S2: the watch where I said, you've got that ball bearing that,
S2: you know, goes around the groove on the face of
S2: the watch. Of course, then you've got the tactile markers
S2: for 12, one, two, three, four, five, six and so on.
S2: So what you effectively do, you get your finger and
S2: you touch the face of the watch. You find out
S2: where the ball bearing is, which is quite easy to locate.
S2: And then of course line it up with the little
S2: tactile marker. And then you can put your finger over
S2: the edge and just basically, you know, swish your finger
S2: around the groove if you like, on the outside of
S2: it to find the little ball bearing on the outside
S2: and then bring your finger back up and over and
S2: feel what the closest tactile marker is, you might think,
S2: oh well, if I'm using my finger, I'm not going
S2: to actually, you know, put the little ball bearings out
S2: of alignment. If you do do that, you can just
S2: shake your wrist gently and the magnetics will actually put
S2: it back into the right time. It's a really nice watch.
S2: People often come up to me and they say, what's
S2: that really interesting watch on your wrist? And I say,
S2: it's it's a tactile timepiece that just uses, um, ball
S2: bearings to tell the time. And everybody says to me,
S2: where did you get it from? Because I want one,
S2: or wouldn't this be a really great gift to give
S2: somebody for a, you know, a five year or a
S2: ten year work anniversary or some other anniversary? So it
S2: really is a beautiful, very solid, elegant timepiece. And if
S2: you haven't felt this, go into your local Vision Australia office,
S2: because we've got practically Vision Australia Vision stores across Australia.
S2: And get your hands on one, because I can guarantee
S2: it'll blow you out of the water about how amazing
S2: this watch is. So the E one Bradley timepiece is
S2: still certainly my favorite timepiece.
S1: How much is it?
S2: It's about $330, so which is a good solid price
S2: for a good solid timepiece. So if you want something
S2: that's a bit ageless and stands out a lot, then
S2: this is a beautiful designed watch to wear.
S1: And it'll last a while. Will it?
S2: It will. It's one of those things that it's not
S2: dated by time. So you buy it now. It'll still
S2: look really, really snazzy and modern even into the future.
S1: You've been talking I recently and you've recorded your conversation.
S1: It was with Professor Toby Walsh, who's chief scientist at
S1: the Eye Institute of the University of New South Wales.
S1: Tell us about that conversation.
S2: So people might have noticed that we're starting to sort
S2: of like do special podcasts on the same talking tech
S2: feed that you normally get this show on talking tech.
S2: It was a discussion with Professor Toby Walsh, who's actually
S2: done lots of books. My most favorite one is called
S2: Faking It, which is all about how artificial intelligence actually
S2: fakes on being intelligent and the fact that it's not
S2: a human being, it's an artificial software bit of program
S2: that tries to pretend it's got intelligence and humanity and
S2: feelings and emotions, but we all know it doesn't. And
S2: it was just a really nice discussion on how, from
S2: a blindness and low vision perspective, how artificial intelligence would
S2: assist us in, you know, getting information. A famous question
S2: that always people ask is about, um, self-driving cars. How
S2: I could assist us in navigating, uh, you know, outdoors
S2: and indoors, um, how we could get faster access to
S2: information rather than just using our screen reader voice input, um,
S2: to AI systems, all that sort of really great stuff.
S2: So I think the interview went for about 35 minutes,
S2: but it was just a really fascinating thing. And if
S2: you'd like to, uh, read all Toby Walsh's books, um,
S2: they're both on Kindle, and I think there's only one
S2: which is the Faking It audiobook. And what he did
S2: with that one was actually, it was Professor Toby Walsh
S2: reading it, but then he also did a little bit
S2: of cheekiness and actually got the computer to also read
S2: part of the book as well. So, um, that was
S2: just a bit of a nod to, you know, how
S2: artificial intelligence uses synthetic speech, um, to tell you what
S2: is on the screen or in this case, the audiobook.
S2: So it was a really, really great chat.
S1: Now we've got a message recently from Ramona. Mandi, who's
S1: now based at Monash University. And as you would expect,
S1: she's very much embedded in the world of assistive technology.
S1: And her message is about some PhD opportunities in the
S1: field of assistive technology to improve the lives of people
S1: with disabilities. And it's from the Monash Assistive Technology and
S1: Society Centre at the university. It's in partnership with the
S1: Faculty of Information Science and some PhD opportunities where people
S1: could really make a difference doing that sort of work.
S2: It is. So there's two PhD opportunities, and absolutely, they're
S2: encouraging people with disability to apply for the two PhD positions. Um, rough,
S2: rough information is you're looking at about a three and
S2: a half year PhD, which is pretty standard. Uh, you'll
S2: get a research grant while you're doing a PhD. Um,
S2: you've got to have and of course, you can read
S2: this on the link that I've got in the show notes.
S2: You've got to have some, um, academic background and, you know,
S2: the more academic type research and publications and all that
S2: sort of good stuff that you've done in the past
S2: will hold you in good stead. But I really think
S2: it's great that, um, this program is looking at assistive
S2: and mainstream technology and how it can impact upon the
S2: lives of people with a disability. Um, so if you've got,
S2: you know, an academic background, you want to do a
S2: PhD and you've got some interesting ideas that you can
S2: chat with the main contact about, uh, to do your
S2: PhD on this would be a really great way of
S2: getting your ideas into a bit more of a, I guess,
S2: a practical outcome. So it does look really, really interesting. Um,
S2: great places like Monash University are investing so much time
S2: and effort in doing these types of programs.
S1: So you've got to get yourself organised. Applications close on
S1: July the 3rd. They do some interesting work, the Monash
S1: Assistive Technology and Society mats mats. So we look forward
S1: to progress with this project. Um, now Microsoft, they had
S1: an event recently.
S2: They did. So this was a build conference, uh, from
S2: last week as we go to air this week, and
S2: it was practically entitled Copilot plus PCs, which is really
S2: all about the fact that, um, there are new PCs
S2: coming out from, you know, major manufacturers such as Acer, Dell, HP,
S2: and so on. And these are going to be all running, um,
S2: ARM processors. They've got of course, they're going to have, um,
S2: neural processing cores. They're going to have 16 gigs of
S2: memory as a minimum, 256GB hard drive, solid state drive
S2: as a, as another minimum, all aimed around running artificial
S2: intelligence software. And I think from memory another thread said
S2: there's 40 different AI systems, um, that these computers will
S2: be running in the background. So it's not just, you know,
S2: when people think about, um, you know, AI or artificial intelligence,
S2: they think about ChatGPT, whereas lots of other stuff that
S2: AI systems can do in the background. So, um, things
S2: like photos, document processing, spreadsheets, data management, computer vision, of course,
S2: that will, you know, of course, we're very interested in, um,
S2: and there's a very interesting, uh, bit of software that's
S2: got people a little bit concerned. It's called recall. So
S2: you can recall anything you've done on your PC. Uh,
S2: from photos to documents to emails to web browsing to
S2: everything else. And you can literally ask the system, you know,
S2: what was I doing, um, three weeks ago on that
S2: project to do with, um, some programming to get a
S2: robot to turn left rather than right, for example. Which
S2: is a pretty. I think, um, coding exercise. And I'll
S2: come back and let you know what documents and videos
S2: and media will be available. And of course, as part
S2: of the co-pilot PC thing, um, these computers will have
S2: a dedicated key for co-pilot itself. Um, but as I said,
S2: it's everything running in the background, um, neural processing engines,
S2: because one of the things about large language models is
S2: becoming because they come off the cloud, um, they're a
S2: little bit slow, but the NPU or the, the neural
S2: processing unit, it'll be doing a lot of stuff on
S2: a local level. So that's what speeds up the whole process.
S2: So I think for the article, they said there was
S2: going to be about mid June when these machines will
S2: be available. Not too pricey I think us wise we're
S2: starting at about $1,000. So you know, not too bad,
S2: but it's really going to be interesting to see where
S2: Windows 11 goes moving forward with all this AI processing,
S2: particularly locally. And let's not forget the fact that in
S2: about two weeks time, um, it'll be Apple's turn to
S2: talk about their artificial intelligence stuff as well. So the
S2: world is going to be looking very interesting in the
S2: next six months or so.
S1: Now we talk about these new computers that we need
S1: in our lives. But you don't want to necessarily discard
S1: the old one.
S2: No. And it's a good idea to remember the stuff
S2: that you don't need, um, sometimes a really powerful computer
S2: to just do things like web browsing or get your email. Um, so,
S2: you know, if you've got a computer that's, I don't know, six,
S2: seven years old, um, then, you know, it's it's fine
S2: to just use a web browser and email client. Um,
S2: some people use their old computers as a media server,
S2: so they just put all their, um, movies and TV
S2: shows and music on, and then all the other computers
S2: in the household just use that as their quote server
S2: to get off your, your media content. Um, of course
S2: you can always add more memory, um, hopefully to an
S2: older computer. You can add in a, you know, a
S2: faster solid state drive. But the other one that I
S2: keep forgetting about is particularly on PCs that use fans
S2: that may or may not be working very well is
S2: just the amount of dust that ends up inside your PC. Um,
S2: so I'm talking about mainly your windows computer, um, and
S2: of course a desktop, not a laptop. And the more
S2: filthy inside these computers get, the worse they actually operate,
S2: the more prone they are to overheating and damaging themselves.
S2: So it's always a good idea to open up your
S2: PC every now and again, every couple of years or
S2: so and give it a bit of vacuum out, or
S2: even take it into a computer shop. If you don't
S2: want to do it yourself and get your PC support person.
S2: If you like to clean up your computer a little bit.
S1: You're not going to tell me now that people still
S1: use floppy disks though, are you?
S2: I am indeed, they probably have for consumers, but for
S2: things like medical, medical equipment, um, some airlines with aircraft
S2: and also things like, um, some light rail systems use
S2: floppy disks to control different types of systems. So even
S2: though you may have not personally touched a floppy disk for,
S2: you know, 10 or 15 years, uh, they're still available
S2: and they're still around being used.
S1: How long do people keep their iPads? For?
S2: The basic number that I've been seeing in most articles
S2: these days is around about three years minimum. Again, it's
S2: one of those things that if you feel like your
S2: iPad in particular is still doing the same thing, then
S2: keep using it. Because tablets are a lot different to smartphones,
S2: smartphones improve a lot. Tablets don't really improve remarkably. So
S2: I always say to people, if your tablet from 3
S2: or 4 years ago was still doing the same job,
S2: that it was always done for you, then don't worry
S2: about upgrading.
S1: Yeah. Before we go, a reminder of where there are
S1: details of what we've been talking about in this and
S1: previous editions of the program.
S2: Indeed. So as always, you can check out my blog
S2: site which is David Woodburn dot podbean Podbean.
S1: Com David would be our dot podbean pod b e
S1: a n.com to write to the program.
S2: You can write to me at Vision Australia Royal Work,
S2: which is David Dot Woodbridge how it sounds at Vision Australia.
S1: Org David Dot Woodbridge at Vision Australia. Org this has
S1: been talking tech with me has been Vision Australia's national
S1: advisor on access technology David Woodbridge I'm Stephen Jolly stay safe.
S1: We'll talk more tech next week. See you.