S1: Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition, available from
S1: November the 26th, 2024. I'm Stephen Jolly, great to have
S1: you with us listening maybe through Vision Australia Radio, associated
S1: stations of the Radio Reading Network or 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 Dana can all come usually on a Tuesday
S1: afternoon just after it's been produced. Another option is to
S1: ask your Siri device or smart speaker to play. Vision
S1: Australia radio talking tech podcast. Vision Australia radio talking tech
S1: podcast with me. Vision Australia's national access technology manager. Damo McMorrow. Hey, Damo.
S2: Hi, Stephen. Nice to be with you once again.
S1: Same to you. And it's getting close to Christmas, so
S1: we probably should be thinking about what to put in
S1: those stockings. And it's a good opportunity to visit the
S1: vision store, which you literally did. Firstly, tell us about
S1: the Vision store. The shop of Vision Australia.
S2: We have a number of physical stores around the country.
S2: They are laid out in a way that is extremely
S2: easy to move around and to navigate. All the different
S2: sections are labelled. The stores are sort of broken up
S2: into categories, so you've got all of the sort of
S2: kitchen and daily living aids in one section, all of
S2: the magnifiers in one section, that kind of thing. They
S2: have all sorts of different things, as I said, daily
S2: living aids, games, toys, accessible technology, magnifiers, daisy players, all
S2: sorts of different equipment. It's a great place to browse
S2: around as a blind person. We also have our online stores,
S2: which you can access at Shop Vision Australia.
S1: Org shop Dot, Vision australia.org.
S2: It's again very easy to navigate and find what you want.
S2: It's all divided up nicely into categories. There's a very
S2: good search function there as well. So for people who
S2: don't necessarily want to go in and touch and feel
S2: and have a look at things or people who may
S2: live too far away from a vision store, you can
S2: certainly do your shopping online and have things delivered to
S2: your door.
S1: Or you can do some preparation for your visit by
S1: browsing the website first.
S2: That's right. And you can also do a click and collect.
S2: So if you know you're going to be, you know,
S2: one of our sites next week or something like that,
S2: you can do your online shopping and then just pick
S2: it up when you go in.
S1: Some nice demos on the website too. YouTube.
S2: Yes, there definitely is. And we're adding to that all
S2: the time as well.
S1: You went to the Peru store the other day and
S1: you sat down with Ruby Lacey. Tell us about Ruby's role.
S2: I'm based at Coorparoo, so that site is my nearest
S2: vision store site in Brisbane. So I caught up with Ruby,
S2: one of our vision store coordinators. We had a chat
S2: about a whole range of different products. We started out
S2: with an accessible toy called the Tony's. So I first
S2: asked her, can you tell me a little bit about these?
S3: Absolutely. I love the Tony's box. I was so, so
S3: excited when we had the Tony's box introduced into our
S3: vision store range. The Tony's is a tactile and audible toy.
S3: It consists of a Tony's box. The Tony's box is
S3: a cube shaped box with a speaker on the top,
S3: and a magnetic platform where you can put your. Tony's characters.
S3: All of the controls are done by hand. You have
S3: two little pointy ears on top of the Tony's box,
S3: and these can be used to control the volume of your. Tony's.
S3: The Tonys is an incredibly durable piece of equipment. I've
S3: heard that the Tonys box has been seen by one
S3: of our team members lobbed across the house, smashed into
S3: a cupboard, and it survived really well.
S2: Not that we'd encourage kids to do that with their toys,
S2: but even with the best will in the world, it happens,
S2: doesn't it?
S3: Absolutely. It does. So incredibly durable. So the Tonys box
S3: itself is really a platform to introduce the Tony's characters. Um,
S3: when you get your Tony's box, it comes with one
S3: Tony's character, and there's a whole range of different characters
S3: that you can get to go with your Tony's box.
S3: And they've really tapped into what's popular with children. So
S3: all of the popular things that you can think of
S3: that kids love from entertainment, there's most likely to be
S3: a Tony in that theme. So today, the characters that
S3: I have with the Tony box, I have a Lion
S3: King character. It's a Simba character, and it offers a
S3: range of different songs from The Lion King. I've got
S3: a Gruffalo character that's a well known children's literary character
S3: from a from a popular story, The Gruffalo, which is
S3: also actually been adapted from books into an animated series.
S3: So it's a really, really well loved character and across
S3: multiple generations. So I can remember The Gruffalo from when
S3: I was younger, and my children also know The Gruffalo. So, um,
S3: a lot of the Tony's characters do stretch across multiple generations,
S3: and you do have some of the newer ones, like
S3: your Paw Patrol and and all of those things that
S3: kids love.
S2: So what what happens? You stick the character to the
S2: top of the Tony's box?
S3: Absolutely. So your little character is magnetic, as is the
S3: top of the Tony's box. And you'll take your character
S3: and you'll place it on top of the Tony's box.
S3: And after a brief intermission. The character will prompt the
S3: Tony's box to start playing whatever content is loaded onto
S3: that individual.
S4: Tony by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler.
S3: In this particular one, you can hear in the background
S3: it will be the novel of The Gruffalo in audiobook form. Awesome.
S3: The character itself is shaped like the Gruffalo. Really kind
S3: of sturdy, hardy, tactile character with the Tony's box. If
S3: I wanted to skip through the first chapter, what I
S3: would do is I would take my hand and strike
S3: the box on the side and it will fast forward
S3: through to the next chapter. If I remove the Tony
S3: from the box, the audio will stop.
S2: Okay, excellent. The Tony's characters are like a small hard
S2: plastic figurine. That's probably, what, 3 or 4cm tall?
S3: That's correct. Big enough to grasp in little hands, but
S3: too big to swallow. And they have a nice, a
S3: nice kind of weight to them. Um.
S2: Yeah, they do feel solid, don't they?
S3: I think that's the magnet in there. So they're they're
S3: quite a solid toy. Wouldn't want to get one thrown
S3: at your head. But that's not where they belong. They
S3: belong on the tiny box, I think with the Chinese
S3: characters as well. One of my favorite Chinese character is
S3: the customizable Chinese character. So there are certain amount of
S3: Tony's that don't have content loaded onto them, but you
S3: have the opportunity to load whatever content you wish onto
S3: that Tony and customize it to your liking.
S2: So you could perhaps narrate a story or something like that,
S2: or record a story or record some songs.
S3: Correct. And you don't have to necessarily be present with
S3: the physical Tony to load that content on, because it's
S3: done through an app, which means that you have the
S3: ability to allow people who are not in your immediate
S3: area to load content onto it. So I think, you know,
S3: grandma living across the country. She could read a story
S3: onto the Tony. You could record things like Christmas messages
S3: or birthday messages onto the Tony. You could read your
S3: child's favorite story on it, so you sometimes get a
S3: break from reading that story out loud. But it really
S3: gives you the ability to customize it in, in whatever
S3: way kind of suits your family. And you can rerecord
S3: over that. Tony. So once you've customized it, you can
S3: customize over that again and again.
S2: Fantastic. I think if I was a kid in this
S2: day and age, I would want one now. Um, one
S2: of the ones that I'm really excited to note that
S2: we have back in stock is the Tape King. Um,
S2: which is a talking tape measure that also has a
S2: spirit level. The the spirit level function I really want
S2: for when we take our caravan away camping. So I
S2: can level the van myself because I can't see the
S2: little bubble thing that's on the, on the drawbar. But
S2: the number of times that we find at home and
S2: we're about to start sort of doing some renovations and things,
S2: and I want to be able to measure stuff. So
S2: really excited that we have a talking tape measure in
S2: once again.
S3: Yes, as am I. It's actually been a long time waiting.
S3: So we've been greatly anticipating being able to have this
S3: talking tape measure again. It's such a such a great
S3: object to have for all of those things you've described.
S3: And there's been a real hole in the vision store
S3: that the tape measure used to fill. So we're really,
S3: really glad to have it back. So the tape measure itself,
S3: you have the talking measuring function, of course. And as
S3: you mentioned, the spirit level function as well. You also
S3: have the ability to add up and memorize. So if
S3: you have to do things in more than one kind
S3: of extension, it can remember the measurement before and add
S3: it up. So if you were measuring an area that
S3: was longer than the total length of that tape measure,
S3: it's able to add that up so it can give
S3: you the total length of, say, a room.
S2: That's definitely going to be handy because of course, the
S2: minute you're doing any kind of renovations at home, you
S2: go into a carpet place and they say, well, how
S2: many square meters of flooring do you want? You go,
S2: I don't know. So I think that's going to be really,
S2: really helpful for me. So as you pull the tape
S2: out it speaks.
S3: That's correct. So I'm just going to get this this
S3: tape King started. We're just going to turn it on.
S3: I'll just do a little demonstration by just pulling out
S3: the tape. Measure a small amount and we'll just get
S3: a reading from that.
S5: Ten centimeters four millimeters.
S3: So at the moment I have it set in centimeters.
S3: If you're not really a metric guy you could change
S3: that to inches.
S2: Now I'm really excited about that one. I think that's
S2: that's going to be a huge help for me. The
S2: other one that I'm really interested to hear about is
S2: the Colorino color detector. I have tried over the years
S2: to use some of the sort of color detector type
S2: phone apps, but I've never found it works as well
S2: as a color detector that you can actually press against
S2: the clothing and sort of eliminate other external light sources
S2: and things. Tell me about this one.
S3: So the color Reno is a small handheld device, sort
S3: of rectangular in shape. It's probably. Let's have a look
S3: at the tape, King says. Let's find out exactly how
S3: big this one is.
S2: Yeah. Why not 11cm.
S3: Okay, so your color Reno is 11cm. On the bottom surface.
S3: You have a battery cover. So this one just takes
S3: standard batteries. It is not a rechargeable device. On the
S3: top side of the device, you've got a speaker and
S3: you have two buttons. The front of the device has
S3: the lens that acts as the color detector. So I'm
S3: just going to turn the color Reno on. What I'm
S3: going to do now is I'm going to hold it
S3: towards this Tony's box. I'm having a look around this room,
S3: and I'm finding a lot of things are really nondescript colors.
S3: So I want to give the color Reno a fair
S3: chance to give us a good reading. So I'm just
S3: holding it up to the Tony's Box intensive.
S6: Red.
S3: Were you able to hear that? Yeah.
S2: Intensive red.
S3: Intensive red. I'd say that's a pretty good interpretation. The
S3: Tony's box. I've always described it as red, but I
S3: think I'll now be calling it intensive red. I think
S3: that's a very fair description. Yeah, it has a lot
S3: of applications, as you mentioned. It can prevent you from
S3: committing crimes against laundry. It can make sure that things
S3: that you're wearing are coordinated and make sure you're wearing
S3: the appropriate gear if you're going to go support your
S3: favorite team. Yes. Yeah. No faux pas at the football
S3: with the color Reno.
S2: That's right.
S7: Which is.
S2: Definitely handy. Thank you very much, Ruby, for joining me
S2: for talking tech. And I want to take the opportunity
S2: to wish you a merry Christmas, and I hope that
S2: we get lots of people through the store between now
S2: and Christmas time.
S3: Thank you so much for having me and Merry Christmas
S3: to everyone listening, and I hope to see you in
S3: the vision store.
S1: And Happy Christmas to you too. Ruby. Ruby. Lacey speaking
S1: there with Damo McMorrow at Vision Australia's Vision store in Coorparoo, Brisbane.
S1: But there's lots of those stores around the country at
S1: various Vision Australia sites, as well as the online shop
S1: Dot Vision australia.org. Damo, let's just let people know how
S1: much money they'll need for these wonderful devices.
S2: Sure. So the Tony's box is one 9999 that comes
S2: with one figurine, and the additional figurines are 29.95. Uh,
S2: if Marian wanted to buy me the tape King talking
S2: tape measure. Uh, that'll cost her $550 and the Colorino
S2: color detector was three 9999.
S1: From the Vision Australia Vision store, available through Shop Vision
S1: australia.org or at our various centers around the country. Before
S1: we go, a reminder of where you can find details
S1: of what we've been talking about in this program. All
S1: you need to do is go to VA Radio Vision Australia,
S1: org slash Talking Tech, VA Radio Vision Australia, dot org
S1: slash talking tech and to write to the program.
S2: Damo Damo McMorrow mkmo o r o w at Vision australia.org.
S1: Damo McMorrow at Vision Australia. Org this has been talking
S1: tech with me has been Vision Australia's national access technology
S1: manager Damo McMorrow. I'm Stephen Jolly. Stay safe. We'll talk
S1: more tech next week. See you.