S1: Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from
S1: December 19th, 2023. I'm Stephen Jolly. Great to have you
S1: with us. Wherever you're listening, perhaps through Virgin Australia Radio,
S1: associated stations of RPI Australia, or maybe 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 downer 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 Virgin
S1: Australia Radio talking tech podcast, Virgin Australia Radio Talking Tech
S1: podcast with me, someone who can explain all this tech
S1: stuff really well. Vivian, Australia's national advisor on access technology,
S1: David Woodbridge David, we'll start with something not so techie,
S1: but really useful. It relates to a product available from
S1: Virgin Australia's vision store, a new cane.
S2: Indeed. This is the South Korean telescopic cane. And the
S2: reason why it's so cool is because, number one, it's
S2: got nine segments that basically shoves into an end of
S2: the handle and, you know, on those sort of legs
S2: that you have, particularly for like bathroom, shower chairs and
S2: that sort of stuff where they've got that little button
S2: that pops out to keep the legs at a certain level. Well,
S2: each time you put one of these little segments out,
S2: it pops out a little stud to make it nice
S2: and solid. So you basically just keep pulling into the
S2: whole canes out, and then it's all rigid and ready
S2: to go. And because it's made of aluminium, this is
S2: the most lightweight cane I have ever felt and used.
S2: And then it also has these reinforced aluminium segments. So
S2: where the cane sort of joins up near that little
S2: stability button that holds the the cane rigid, it's reinforced.
S2: So not only is it light, it's also very strong.
S2: And I guess if I had to give people a
S2: little bit of warning about it, remember, if they sort
S2: of fold up canes, they're designed to be more sort
S2: of indoor canes rather than outdoor. And the reason why
S2: I said that is two things. The the tip, because
S2: it is such a beautiful small, you know, recessed cane.
S2: The tip is not that big. So you might get
S2: it sort of stuck into cracks in the concrete and
S2: that sort of stuff indoor. It's perfect on tiles and
S2: carpet and all that sort of surface changes because because
S2: you get such a great feedback through that aluminium frame
S2: of the actual cane. The second reason why I wanted
S2: to bring to people's attention is that because this kind
S2: concertina is back into itself and you've got those buttons,
S2: please don't open this cane rapidly. Now when I mean rapidly,
S2: I mean just don't go to open up. The whole
S2: came up in my little extend the polymers if you
S2: do it too hard like I did at karate last week,
S2: parts of the cane will actually pull out from the
S2: other parts of the cane. And I've done that and
S2: it was fixable. Um, I actually got my sighted daughter
S2: to do it for me when I got back to home.
S2: But you can imagine if you did that very quickly,
S2: about to get on a train or in the middle
S2: of a city street, and you had no one around
S2: to help you, or you couldn't get it back together again,
S2: you've just lost your mobility, right? So when you open
S2: it gently, so like a sort of a type matching
S2: that sort of sounds opening it, it's fine. So you're
S2: not going to break it, just opening it normally. But
S2: when I saw that bit of paper in the the
S2: carrying case for the cane that said warning, please do
S2: not open this cane roughly or quickly, they really do
S2: mean that. But besides that it comes in different sizes.
S2: I've got a 54 inch whatever it is in centimeters cane.
S2: Like I said, it retracts back into the handle. It's
S2: so tiny. It's light, it's sturdy. So as an indoor
S2: cane and a backup cane that I always carry around
S2: with me anyway. Absolutely fantastic. So again, it's called the
S2: South Korean telescopic cane. And if you want to make
S2: sure it's the right one that says nine segments, or
S2: if you want to go down in the description, it
S2: does have that warning about not opening it up too rapidly.
S1: I think you like it. It's available from the vision
S1: store of Vision Australia, and the vision store will be closing, uh,
S1: as expected over the Christmas period last day, December 22nd.
S1: Probably a good idea to get in by midday Monday
S1: and then opens again on January 8th. Now tell us
S1: about Site Tech Global which happened a couple of weeks ago.
S2: So from memory I think they started in 2020. But
S2: it's a series of two day workshop or a conference
S2: where they get major players in the field of assistive
S2: technology to talk about relevant tech for particularly blind and
S2: low vision. And by the way, the word site is
S2: actually s I g h t not site, hence the name.
S2: But this time around, on the sixth and 7th of December,
S2: they had quite a few discussions on computer artificial intelligence,
S2: and they had a professor on there from one of
S2: the universities in the states talking about what exactly a
S2: large language model is, how it's built up over time,
S2: and sort of what we consider to be, you know,
S2: artificial intelligence or real computer AI type stuff. So it
S2: was really fascinating. The link I've got in the show
S2: notes takes you to the website, where you can listen
S2: to all the main stage discussions, and there's also some
S2: stuff on there on the on the dot pad and
S2: some other stuff as there as well. But primarily I
S2: think this year was really focusing quite heavily on AI.
S2: So really interesting to listen to and I think you'll
S2: get a lot out of it.
S1: The Haber one, which is a nice device for giving
S1: people Braille keyboard access to iOS devices, now works with Android.
S2: It does. So I've been mentioning this device on and
S2: off for probably the last two years now, and it
S2: was only this year that they brought out, and I
S2: think it was back in April this year. They brought
S2: out an iOS version. And the reason for the app
S2: is that that's the way that you can update the
S2: firmware or the software inside the Haber one. And for
S2: people that can't remember what it is, if you can
S2: imagine A8K custom device, but just imagine a Braille cell.
S2: So you've got keys going down the left hand side
S2: in the middle of this device. So one, two, three.
S2: And then you've got the right column of your browser
S2: with keys 4 or 5 and six. And then of
S2: course being sort of an eight dot brow thing, you've
S2: got dot seven next to dot three to the left
S2: and you've got eight to the right of of course, six.
S2: So a combination of those keys allow you to navigate.
S2: So I think it was only, I want to say
S2: the end of November or the early part of December
S2: this year that they released the Android version, which means
S2: every time they bring up a new improvement for Harbor One, uh,
S2: then you can update it very easily, because I always
S2: used to hate updating my orbit writer or even my
S2: Revo keyboard. I just felt like I had to do
S2: weird and wonderful things to update it. Well, this one
S2: you simply, um. If it's Bluetooth connected across to your smartphone,
S2: iPhone or Android, you run the app, it goes, hello,
S2: there it is. And you simply press the update button
S2: on the screen. You couldn't get much easier to keep
S2: your hardware device up to date.
S1: Apple has dropped some new versions of its software last week.
S2: Indeed. So iOS 17.2 and to be completely correct, iPad
S2: OS 17.2 as well. But in the iPhone version. And
S2: the reason why I mention this because I think it's annoying.
S2: It's not available in the iPad. They released a lovely
S2: app called the Journal App and basically what it is,
S2: it's a journal, or in old terms, it's a diary
S2: for you to sort of keep track of your thoughts
S2: and feelings and things that you just might want to quote,
S2: write down, uh, as you live your life. And I
S2: was listening to a very interesting mainstream chit chat last week.
S2: So people often, you know, they'll actually often Twitter and, uh,
S2: Mastodon and whatever else. And yes, I did say Twitter.
S2: I hate using the word x, um, about, you know,
S2: how their day went or how the holiday was. Well,
S2: this is not you sharing with the world. This is
S2: your you sharing with yourself. So it's a way of just,
S2: you know, popping down the occasional note. Or you might
S2: have just like me, I've just got my karate purple
S2: advance belt, so that's something to write down. Um, towards
S2: the end of the year for me now, so I
S2: can just, you know, I can look back, you know,
S2: next year. And so I wonder if there was anything
S2: in December that I did in 2023. And the nice
S2: thing about these apps that Apple produces, they're not all singing,
S2: all dancing, feature rich. They're just enough to do the job.
S2: And and I guess from that point of view is
S2: that if you don't like the, the basic features of it, uh,
S2: because it does give you suggestions, then you can always
S2: go and use a much more advanced journaling app.
S1: Yep. And what about the Mac?
S2: The Mac has released Mac OS version 14.2. So Sonoma,
S2: it's the name of the operating system version and supposedly
S2: exclamation mark. The fix the bug that would cause VoiceOver
S2: to respond with. Not responding for safari. When you're opening Safari,
S2: you're refreshing a page and so on. Well, supposedly that's
S2: been fixed. And I know that's one thing there have
S2: been people have been whinging about for I know I
S2: almost want to say good decade now, so fingers crossed.
S2: But yes, that's that's now a brand spanking new update
S2: for me. There's nothing really that stands out besides that fixed.
S1: And the watch operating system also up to 9.2.
S2: Yeah, and apparently I haven't double checked this one, but
S2: apparently the watch version, they've fixed the fact that you
S2: can do your two fingers swipe again between your watch
S2: face screens. If my two year old grandson's over here,
S2: I've normally got their Mickey Mouse watch for him. And
S2: then when I'm doing my normal workout, I switch back
S2: to the watch face for my workout stuff. So it's
S2: nice again that they've actually fixed that issue, particularly with
S2: VoiceOver changing your watch faces.
S1: There's some very useful, shall we say, tech newsletters that
S1: we see each week, uh, the information access news and
S1: also the top tech tidbits. They're pretty good, aren't they?
S2: They're actually very well done. Because what they do, they
S2: have a lot of, um, if you like, contributing editors,
S2: including me, uh, that gives them information about all different
S2: types of accessibility. As far as assistive tech in mainstream
S2: tech's concerned. The problem I find sometimes, and they do
S2: warn you about this, that sometimes this stuff ends up
S2: in your spam folder in your email. So it's always
S2: a good idea to double check that if you haven't
S2: researched it on. I think I normally get mine on
S2: a Monday evening, our time and Thursday evening our time. Uh,
S2: and of course I use this for when I've gone
S2: through all my social media stuff for talking tech as well.
S2: But if you really need to keep up to date,
S2: or you just out of interest, you want to keep
S2: up to date, this is a really great source of information.
S1: Let's think a bit now about the future. Uh, a
S1: work in progress is object recognition and screen detection on
S1: our smart devices.
S2: I know there's been a lot of talk about object recognition,
S2: particularly in the field, and then using AI to interpret,
S2: you know, what what the camera's taking a picture of
S2: and what's in the field of view and that sort
S2: of stuff. Now, I decided with my friend Caitlin to
S2: go out and do a bit of a non-official research project,
S2: which took about four hours. So we set out with
S2: both my Android phone and my iPhone. Uh, primarily we're
S2: using seeing AI because it's available on both and also
S2: be my eyes virtual assistant again on both. So we
S2: went around to, uh, parks, shopping centers, train stations and
S2: anything else I could possibly think of. And we took
S2: photos and we kept comparing them to what iOS did
S2: and what Android did on those applications. And unofficially, the
S2: unofficial research, I think we decided that it was about 85% accurate,
S2: because what it almost seemed to do it, it almost
S2: seemed like it was not identifying an item as such.
S2: It was identifying an item based on the location. So,
S2: for example, when it determined that we were in a
S2: park and there was a swing and a seesaw, it
S2: decided that the little round thing that kids sit in,
S2: which is actually like a round shape, it decided that
S2: that was a little toy shed for apparent reason. Um,
S2: and it was doing some other strange things as well.
S2: So it was almost like saying, oh, look, I know
S2: that on the train station there should be this thing there,
S2: or I know in a shopping center there should be
S2: this thing there. So is I must like it wasn't
S2: looking directly at the object, it was looking what things
S2: should be in that in particular environment that I was
S2: having to interpret of the photo of. It was interesting.
S1: Um, before we go, a reminder of where people can
S1: find details of what we've been talking about in this
S1: and previous editions of the program.
S2: As always, you can check out my blog site, which
S2: is David would be a dot podbean pad.
S1: Ben from David would be our dot podbean pod be
S1: a incom to write to the program.
S2: You can write to me at Vision Australia where I work,
S2: which is David Woodbridge Sounds at Vision Australia.
S1: Org David Dot Woodbridge at Vision Australia. George this has
S1: been talking tech with me has been Vision Australia's national
S1: advisor on access technology David Woodbridge I'm Stephen Jolley. Have
S1: a good Christmas everyone. Stay safe. We'll talk more tech
S1: next week. See you.