S1: Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from
S1: November the 19th, 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 perhaps the Community
S1: Radio Network. There is also the podcast. To catch that,
S1: all you need to do is search for the two
S1: words talking tech and down a canal come usually on
S1: a Tuesday afternoon just after it's been produced. Another option
S1: is 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. Vision Australia's national access technology manager.
S1: Damo McMorrow. Hey, Damo.
S2: Hi, Stephen.
S1: Damo, let's talk about something that falls right within your portfolio.
S1: And that's the At Access Technology help desk at Vision Australia,
S1: because there's some great things that you're able to do
S1: from that desk. Tell us about it all.
S2: Yes. So the help desk really is there to provide
S2: you with phone and email support for your products. And
S2: when I say that, what I mean is that we
S2: we can't come to your house. But what we can
S2: do is if you have questions, you can call the
S2: main vision Australia number the 1300 847 406. That's 1300 847 466 or one
S2: 300 vision. Um or you can email ATC help at
S2: Vision Australia. Org. And we're able to help with a
S2: whole range of things. So if it's just advice you're
S2: looking for on, you know, phones or screen readers or magnifiers,
S2: we can certainly help with that. But we can also
S2: use remote support tools like Remote Incident Manager from Numa solutions.
S2: If you've got a windows machine or a mac, we
S2: can remote in and provide support for you that way
S2: as well and actually see what you're seeing and hear
S2: what you're hearing And address problems. That way all of
S2: the team are blind or low vision themselves and they
S2: are spread around the country. So we have Mo. In Sydney,
S2: Greg in Perth, Eric in Brisbane and Brett on the
S2: Sunshine Coast. And they all use all of this sort
S2: of technology on a daily basis. So they, they bring
S2: not only a lot of technology experience to the table,
S2: but a lot of lived experience as well.
S1: So that's very interesting that they're distributed all over the country.
S1: And it really doesn't matter where you're calling from or
S1: one of those people is available to help.
S2: That's right. And we operate from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
S2: Australian Eastern Daylight Time. So and that's Monday to Friday.
S2: Obviously if you email us out of hours, we'll we'll
S2: get back to you as soon as we're open or
S2: as soon as we can.
S1: So what sorts of things do the help desk team
S1: help people with? Like it seems pretty amazing. I know
S1: it's been possible for years, but happens a lot more
S1: now that you can remote into somebody's machine.
S2: We get all kinds of different questions. You know, it
S2: might be a problem with jaws, or it might be
S2: an issue upgrading your jaws or your zoom text. It
S2: might be a question about Nvda or Jaws. Why is
S2: it not reading a particular thing? It might be just
S2: a feature that perhaps used to work and doesn't seem
S2: to be working the way that you might expect. Um,
S2: it might be someone using something like Dolphin Supernova or
S2: Guide Connect. It can be any, any number of things.
S2: We don't tend to do things that are not at
S2: all related. So, you know, if you want to upgrade
S2: your machine from Windows 10 to Windows 11, that's not
S2: something we would necessarily do. So we do focus on
S2: the sort of at aspect of it, if you like,
S2: rather than, you know, fixing printers and general computer related help,
S2: removal of viruses and those kinds of things fall outside
S2: of our area of expertise. But if it's Related to
S2: any At product you're using. You know, VoiceOver talkback on
S2: an Android phone, your Braille display, or any of your
S2: screen readers or screen magnification type products.
S1: And again, the way to get in touch with the
S1: help desk.
S2: Is the main vision. Australia number 130847466 or HTC Help
S2: at Vision Australia.
S1: Org one 308 47466.
S2: That's right or HTC help at Vision Australia.
S1: Org we've talked in the past about the Ray-Ban meta
S1: smart glasses. You've got some very good news about those.
S1: Let's start by talking about what those glasses are.
S2: Just to sort of recap from previous discussions. Because they
S2: are made by Ray-Ban, they essentially look like a regular
S2: pair of sunglasses, except that they have a small camera.
S2: I think it's a 13 megapixel camera positioned in the
S2: top corner of the left hand Lens and in the
S2: opposite corner. So the top right corner of the right
S2: hand lens, there is a little LED light. And then
S2: on the right arm of the glasses is a physical
S2: button that you can press to take photographs or videos
S2: and initiate a number of other things. There is also
S2: a touch sensitive surface running along the right arm of
S2: the glasses. These are produced in partnership with meta. So
S2: meta is the company that's responsible for Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram
S2: and so on. They were originally designed, I suppose, for
S2: the sighted user who might want to take photographs and
S2: post them to Instagram or post, make little videos and
S2: post them to Facebook, that kind of thing. But they've
S2: become quite popular in the blindness community because they are
S2: a mainstream consumer item. So you can purchase them from
S2: any sunglass store, and they do have the meta AI
S2: assistant built in. So you can say things like, hey,
S2: what am I looking at? Hey, meta, look and read
S2: me any signs. Uh, those kinds of things. So you
S2: can sort of get hands free information about the visual
S2: world around you.
S1: And there's been a great development with them in very
S1: recent times.
S2: Yes. That's right. The Be My Eyes service, which is
S2: a visual interpretation service that is staffed entirely by volunteers.
S2: So they have, I believe, 8.1 million volunteers globally registered
S2: with the system. And the idea is that you can
S2: make a call and you put through to one of
S2: those volunteers and they can provide you visual assistance. So
S2: up to now that's been done using the back camera
S2: on your phone, either Android or your iPhone. So you
S2: could ask for assistance reading print. You could ask for
S2: some visual information about the world around you. You could ask,
S2: you know, what's on the screen of my computer, that
S2: kind of thing. But they have partnered with meta as well,
S2: so that you can now get hands free visual interpretation
S2: assistance through the Ray-Ban meta smart glasses. The idea is
S2: you can say, hey meta, be my eyes and it
S2: will initiate a call to one of the Be My
S2: Eyes volunteers, and you could then get help to navigate
S2: through the airport or, uh, you know, have a look
S2: if your dog or your cat has taken off out
S2: the back, you know, is it visible somewhere, whatever it
S2: might be? The other thing that they've done, which is
S2: quite nice, is that you can double tap the button
S2: on the top of the right arm of the glasses
S2: and switch between your phone's camera and the camera in
S2: the glasses. So you might, for example, use the glasses
S2: to help you get somewhere or find a doorway. But
S2: you then might want to switch to your phone camera
S2: and have the volunteer read the menu to you as
S2: an example. For those that already have the glasses, all
S2: you need to do is make sure that you have
S2: the latest update. And then under the settings under accessibility,
S2: there's a Be My Eyes button which allows you to
S2: link your Be My Eyes account to the glasses.
S1: Where do you get these glasses and how much are they?
S2: They vary in price depending on what lenses you have.
S2: There's three different kind of models. The difference is just
S2: in the shape of them. So there's the Wayfarer, which
S2: is sort of a trapezoid shaped lens. There's a headliner
S2: which is sort of the traditional kind of rounded glasses.
S2: And then there's the Skyla, which I haven't seen. I
S2: think they're perhaps more an oval one, but you can
S2: also get things like ones with transition lenses or polarized lenses,
S2: that kind of thing. The most basic one starts at
S2: about $460, and you can get them from any of
S2: your sort of major sunglasses type chains. I think I
S2: got mine from a local Sunglass Hut store. I think
S2: opsm have them. Any of your sort of standard eyewear
S2: type stores would carry them?
S1: The Ray-Ban meta smart glasses. We have talked in the
S1: past about the Blind Shell classic phone. There's a new
S1: model on the horizon, shall we say.
S2: There is indeed. Yes, the Blind Shell classic three is
S2: what they're calling this one. The blind shell is what
S2: they used to call a candy bar style of phone.
S2: Anyone that remembers the old Nokia type phones from the 90s,
S2: you know, with a tactile keypad, a screen above that.
S2: And they were sort of roughly the the shape of
S2: a chocolate bar, which is why they used to call
S2: them a candy bar phone. That's sort of what the
S2: blind shell looks and feels like. And it provides a
S2: whole array of features, all of which, you know, the
S2: output is is spoken. The classic two did all of
S2: the usual sort of smart phone type things, and it
S2: had an array of curated apps that you could install,
S2: things like WhatsApp. It was compatible with the Arc Arcs
S2: vision headset, a whole range of other apps and things
S2: that you could install. Now, with the classic three, they
S2: look and feel the same. I don't think there's any
S2: change to the physical design, but they have added some
S2: new features, so they've added a voice assistant, which is
S2: sort of like your Siri or your Google type assistant,
S2: where you can ask it questions and get multiple pieces
S2: of information rather than just, you know, voice commands to
S2: call Fred or that type of thing. It goes much
S2: beyond that. There is also the ability to install a
S2: wider range of apps. I don't exactly know how this works,
S2: but you can install other apps that are available on
S2: the Google Play Store. Not all of them, but a subset,
S2: and not all of them will work. So it will
S2: be some sort of experimentation with this. You know, if
S2: you want to go and download the Sportsbet app or
S2: the Tab app or something like that. It may work,
S2: but it may not. So the support, you know, for
S2: that is fairly limited. If you're using an app that
S2: isn't sort of native to the phone, if you like.
S1: There's also going to be the capability for someone to
S1: connect into your phone remotely and do updates and things.
S2: That's right. Yes.
S1: So so there might be the tech guru in the
S1: family who is very good with this stuff and can
S1: help out mum or dad or grandma, grandad, whoever with
S1: the updating to the phone. And that takes a lot
S1: of the tech challenge requirement away from the owner of
S1: the phone, doesn't it?
S2: It definitely does because a lot of people, you know,
S2: they don't necessarily want to know what's going on under
S2: the hood. They just want the thing to work. Um,
S2: and so yes, that's a really good feature. I think
S2: they're calling it tandem. Those that are familiar with sort
S2: of the jaws tandem concept would be familiar with that.
S2: So yes, someone can, uh, log in remotely and install
S2: an update for you or help you figure out how
S2: an app works or what's on the screen.
S1: Now, I believe these phones are going to cost pretty
S1: much the same as existing ones, in the order of $1,000,
S1: something like that. When are they coming to Australia?
S2: There's a couple of things that still need to happen.
S2: One is that we obviously need to get things like
S2: all of the electrical compliance sorted before we can bring
S2: them in, but also we want to make sure that
S2: they're actually approved for use by all of the carriers.
S2: The Australian Communications and Media Authority, ACMA, recently gave a
S2: directive to the telcos to say that if it's not
S2: a phone that you recognise, if it's not what they
S2: call white listed, then you know you should potentially block
S2: it from the network. And I think that's to avoid,
S2: you know, people, uh, bringing in, you know, phones that
S2: might cause radio interference or cause other problems or might
S2: not meet the Australian standards. So one of the things
S2: that we would need to do before it's available is
S2: to make sure that it's whitelisted with all of the
S2: all of the carriers. Those processes are already underway, so
S2: I would think they should be available here in Australia
S2: in the new year.
S1: The blonde Show classic three. The phone with the physical
S1: buttons on it. Watch out for that. We'll have news
S1: of it as it does arrive on our shores. Now,
S1: before we go, a reminder you can find details of
S1: what we've been talking about in this and previous editions
S1: of the program from VA radio.org/talking tech. VA radio.org/talking tech
S1: and to right to the program.
S2: You can email me Damo Damo dot McMorrow m c
S2: m o w r o w at Vision australia.org.
S1: Damo Dot McMorrow at Vision australia.org. This has been talking
S1: tech with me has been Vision Australia's national access technology
S1: manager Damien McMorrow. I'm Stephen Jolly. Take care. We'll talk
S1: more tech next week. See you.