S1: Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from
S1: April the 30th, 2024. I'm Stephen Jolly. Great to have
S1: you with us. Listening maybe through Vision Australia radio associated
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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 Daniken, or come usually on a Tuesday afternoon
S1: just after it's been produced. Another option is to ask
S1: your Siri device or smart speaker to play Vision Australia
S1: Radio talking tech podcast Vision Australia Radio Talking tech podcast
S1: normally with me is Vision Australia's national advisor on access technology,
S1: David Woodbridge. Unfortunately, David can't be with us this week,
S1: so instead we'll bring you a conversation that David and
S1: I had about four months ago. Towards the end of 2023.
S1: Reflecting on the year's developments in technology, particularly from the
S1: perspective of people who are blind or have low vision.
S1: So here we go. This conversation, taken from the edition
S1: of December the 26th, 2023. So let's reflect today on
S1: what has probably been the major talking point in the
S1: tech world over the last year. And that's A.I., Artificial Intelligence.
S1: And I must say that I first really started to
S1: think about it sort of in current times, around November 2022,
S1: when a report on ABC was talking about this new thing, uh,
S1: this website open AI, and you could do really interesting
S1: things like get it to write letters for you or
S1: write essays. And it's all taken off. I think of A.I.
S1: really as taking advantage of the really high computing power
S1: that we have these days to be able to do
S1: things that we just couldn't imagine doing before, but really
S1: useful things. How would you describe it?
S2: I tend to describe it as a computer system that
S2: responds to, uh, speech or typing input. So those two
S2: modes are primarily. The second thing I always think about
S2: is the fact that it can actually make decisions based
S2: on data. And the third thing that really comes off
S2: that data is that the fact that it can recognize patterns,
S2: because it has this whole database of information, that it
S2: can look up extremely fast and recognize patterns of your
S2: own personal use or in general use around the world.
S2: So that's the main three things that always sticks out
S2: for me with computer, artificial intelligence or AI.
S1: Now if you ask some people what I use, they'd say, oh,
S1: something tech that's got the capacity to destroy civilization as
S1: we know it, but it can do a lot of
S1: very useful things, and let's not worry about the threats
S1: of it at the moment, because that's a long conversation
S1: some other time. What sorts of things is it doing?
S2: It's actually quite amazing because when you think about AI,
S2: we're already using it. So people get sort of blown
S2: away or get nervous about chat, GPT and other systems,
S2: but we're already using it in everyday lives. For example, um,
S2: I've got a bit of a list here. So advanced
S2: web search that's actually AI, because it also brings up
S2: suggestions for you when you do a search, when you're watching, uh, Netflix, ABC, iview,
S2: I'm assuming, because I really haven't delved in too much.
S2: When you watch a show, it then comes up with
S2: other suggestions that other things that you may want to
S2: watch in the future or now. So again, that's pattern
S2: recognition and making a bit of a decisions for you.
S2: Let's think about virtual assistants. So they're the classic A
S2: lady I won't say the name Google and Siri, um,
S2: which we always have in our smartphones. Again, to me
S2: that's a basic version of AI, uh, because it's really
S2: command line driven. It doesn't have these large language models
S2: that it can look up speech recognition. So not just
S2: talking to your smart speakers or these virtual assistants, uh,
S2: but also controlling, uh, your computer and of course, dictating
S2: to your computer, which is actually pretty amazing. Automated translation.
S2: So for those that remember Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
S2: in the famous Babelfish, which is stuck in your ear
S2: for automatic language translation, uh, systems do that automatically for
S2: you now. And that's again, I, uh, nowadays, Steven, we
S2: can get an audio file of somebody talking and get
S2: a transcription of it, uh, in text. So again, I, um,
S2: I've already mentioned smart home, but that's really in relation
S2: to virtual. But when I had this as a separate topic,
S2: your systems learn when you come home, when you want
S2: the air conditioner on, when you want the lights turned off.
S2: That's all about pattern recognition. And for industry it's predictive maintenance.
S2: So the AI systems will decide when you know the
S2: trucks need servicing or the machinery that's used for packing
S2: stuff in the warehouse needs maintenance. Natural language processing. And
S2: this is really where things like, uh, ChatGPT and Copilot
S2: and Bing stand out, because you can just have a
S2: bit of a general chat to these things now. And
S2: based on the keywords that you use, it decides what
S2: things you want to look up and give the information
S2: back to you. Content creation, which is one you already
S2: mentioned there. That's where, for example, if I wanted to
S2: write an email to a company about web accessibility or
S2: application accessibility, I can say to the AI, look, I'd
S2: like you to write a nice, gentle, but assertive email
S2: about the importance of web or application accessibility. And it's
S2: just the amazing stuff that it writes. So it says,
S2: you know, dear Sir or madam, uh, we'd like to
S2: bring to your attention, etc., etc., etc. and it. Really
S2: does have all the main points, which is really amazing.
S2: This is the one that I particularly like when I'm
S2: using and doing research for the show is automatic text summarization.
S2: So I can actually ask a AI to summarize an
S2: article for me, or some text that I've given it,
S2: and it will give me the main points. When we
S2: access our smartphones, we're using facial recognition. Again, I spell
S2: checking you might not think this is AI, but I
S2: is indeed one version of spell checking word suggestions. So
S2: this is not so much about word prediction, which is
S2: another form of AI. This is where you partially type
S2: in a word, and then the computer comes back and
S2: gives you a list of other words that are similar
S2: to the word you just started typing in, which is
S2: actually really amazing. Uh, cybersecurity is another major one weather prediction,
S2: because when you ask your weather system or your weather app,
S2: what's the weather going to be? That's based on computer
S2: generated weather tables around the world and looking at trends
S2: and that sort of stuff. Uh, health and well-being, automated
S2: customer systems. You know, when you ring up those phone
S2: system and it says, how would you like to chat to?
S2: And you might say, well, for a mobile, you might
S2: say mobile or mobile internet. And then it'll keep asking
S2: you these questions, and I'll just say these ones quickly,
S2: because they're all sort of similar aviation, shipping trains and
S2: other forms of public transport, all again driven by AI
S2: automatic self-driving cars. Who doesn't want one of those automated drones?
S2: And finally, robotics, which is the the one that scares
S2: people about, you know, you think of, um, Isaac Asimov
S2: and other famous science fiction writers. That's the one that
S2: always gets people worried because they think, well, robots are
S2: going to take off the world. That'll be the end
S2: of the human race. So there are all the main
S2: general ones.
S1: Let's talk now then, about specifically where it's making a
S1: difference for people who are blind or have low vision,
S1: where AI is making a difference.
S2: So the ones that are making a huge difference, and
S2: the ones that have already said sort of cover these,
S2: but these are more specific ones that I guess to
S2: remind people. So object recognition and of course these are
S2: mainly all based around your camera and your smartphone. So
S2: that's tell you what sort of objects may be around you.
S2: And then we've also got distance from objects. So how
S2: close is the object away. So that's almost like you
S2: know a good old orientation mobility to you know beep
S2: beep or now someone's away indoor navigation as opposed to GPS.
S2: This is indoor navigation where systems learn a route inside
S2: a building and then can take identification markers of items
S2: around you to position you in a, in a building
S2: sort of very similar to object recognition is scene detection.
S2: So scene detection is a way where you can take
S2: a picture of somebody's backyard or a park, and then
S2: it will tell you the position of things in the park,
S2: for example. So where the swings are, they'll identify the trees,
S2: the seats and so on.
S1: Now this next one really appeals to me on your list.
S1: The barcode or QR code identification.
S2: Again, being able to point your camera. And particularly there's
S2: an app that makes it very easy to access barcodes.
S2: I don't believe it does QR codes at the moment,
S2: QR codes, but again, that's actually very effective. The one
S2: that I don't like because it's it's a factor of light,
S2: is color recognition because the based on what the light's
S2: bouncing back from the object, you can get different versions
S2: of color. So that's a thing that I think needs
S2: to be worked on. Uh, speaking about light, light detection.
S2: So you can tell whether a light's on or off
S2: or a device is on and off by the little
S2: LED lights on the device. Pebble detection. And I use
S2: this quite a lot handwriting recognition as opposed to the
S2: other one, which is also optical character recognition OCR for
S2: reading text. So handwriting is very cool. Voice control. So again,
S2: this is probably more advanced than just general speech recognition.
S2: This is also being able to control your assistive technology,
S2: whether it's a screen reader or screen magnifier, switch control, etc.
S2: and interact with the computer. So you're using the computer,
S2: the program and your assistive technology. It's really, really amazing.
S1: And tell us about some of the apps that really
S1: excel with AI.
S2: These apps are actually going to be quite well known
S2: to people. And the first one we have to mention
S2: for both iOS and I'm pleased to say Android now is,
S2: of course, the Seeing Eye app from Microsoft. And that's
S2: a suite of applications inside it called channels. So you've
S2: got things like short text, OCR, document text for OCR
S2: product recognition, which is barcode. Um, you've got people detection,
S2: you've got scene detection, light detection, currency detection, color detection
S2: and so on.
S1: I just want to put in a quick word here
S1: for the document reader in seeing AI, because seeing AI
S1: is really improved. I put my rates notice in front
S1: of it the other day and. Instead of it reading
S1: me the whole document, I said, can you tell me
S1: when the due date is? Can you tell me the amount,
S1: total amount owing, etc.? It's really good.
S2: Yeah, it does work really well, particularly when you can actually, uh,
S2: I don't like the word interrogate, but you can ask
S2: questions about the document that it's just read, and you
S2: can really narrow down on the information that it's got. Uh, so,
S2: so to me, that's the main one that stands out,
S2: you know, really for the last 12 months, um, of course,
S2: the one, the main one. Besides seeing I now on Android,
S2: you've got the lookout app, which does stuff primarily very
S2: similar to seeing a I. And then there's other, you know,
S2: assistive tech ones and of course, the, the couple of
S2: the main ones that I use for, you know, I
S2: chat type stuff is of course the chat GPT because
S2: it's got that voice mode now where you can speak
S2: to it and it speaks to you, uh, being the
S2: new version that's now called copilot, that's a live search,
S2: plus a large language model, and the one that I
S2: use on the Mac all the time now is actually
S2: Copilot itself via the web page on the Mac, which
S2: of course is built in to Windows 10 and 11 now.
S2: So that's actually pretty cool.
S1: Perplexity is another very popular one that certainly works in
S1: the iOS environment. And we mustn't forget to acknowledge the
S1: be my eyes virtual assistant. Be my eye.
S2: Yeah, that's actually really set the bar extremely high. And
S2: of course, that's where you can take a photo of
S2: something and it gives you back all the information. And
S2: you can also ask it questions as well. So I think,
S2: you know, given that this stuff's jumped up in the
S2: last year or so, um, I think it's going to
S2: be really amazing where this stuff goes in the next,
S2: you know, next year or so even.
S3: Um.
S1: All right. So that's, uh, I and I wonder what
S1: we'll be saying about it in 12 months time.
S2: I think we'll have our socks blown off in another
S2: 12 months. Besides the web and mobile phones, this, for me,
S2: is the next third thing in 30 years of doing
S2: my job. Then I'll be really, really, really excited about.
S1: So that's I our take on it at the moment.
S1: Before we go, a reminder of where people can find
S1: details of what we've been talking about in this and
S1: previous editions of the program.
S2: As always, you can check out my blog site, which
S2: is David Wood Beard Podbean pod ban.com.
S1: David Wood beard Podbean pod b e a Encom to
S1: write to the program.
S2: You can write to me at David Dot Woodbridge how
S2: it sounds at Vision Australia.
S1: Org David Woodbridge at Vision Australia. Org or jolly Stephen
S1: at gmail.com. Jolly Stephen j o l l e y
S1: s t e p h e n at gmail.com. This
S1: has been talking tech. We've been hearing from Vision Australia's
S1: National Advisor on Access Technology, David Woodbridge, reflecting on developments
S1: in technology throughout 2023. I'm Stephen Jolly. Take care. We'll
S1: talk more tech next week. See you.