S1: Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from
S1: July the 25th, 2023. I'm Stephen Jolly. Great to have
S1: you with us wherever you're listening, perhaps through Vision Australia
S1: Radio associated Stations of Australia or the Community Radio Network,
S1: there is also the podcast. If you haven't caught up
S1: with that yet, all you need to do is search
S1: for the two words talking tech and Dan can all
S1: come usually on a Tuesday afternoon just after it's been produced.
S1: Another option is to ask a Siri device or smart
S1: speaker to play Vision Australia Radio Talking Tech Podcast. Vision
S1: Australia Radio Talking Tech podcast. With me someone who can
S1: explain all this tech stuff really well. Vision Australia's National
S1: Advisor on Access Technology, David Woodbridge. David, let's pretend today
S1: that the internet is out of the way. Maybe you're
S1: on an aeroplane or somewhere. There are lots of options though,
S1: aren't there?
S2: There are because when you think when you you're not
S2: in cellular contact or you're not in internet range where
S2: I said you're in the sky and you've got airplane
S2: mode turned on, you sometimes think, Oh, you know, I
S2: can't do anything with my devices. But I spent the
S2: weekend going through my devices that I use in plus
S2: a few more ones at Vision Australia Vision store cell.
S2: And it's amazing what you can actually do if one
S2: if you're prepared and two, if the actual device you're
S2: using can work quite happily when it's not connected to the,
S2: you know, the vast superhighway.
S1: Let's start with some human wear products. The Victor Reader Stratus.
S2: This is one of these products that it's been around,
S2: would you believe, since about 2011. So it's been around
S2: for a long time. And what it is, it's basically
S2: a daisy player that still has wait for it a
S2: CD slot to put CDs into it, including Daisy CDs,
S2: audio CDs, music and or commercial audiobooks. And you can
S2: also plug in a SD card and a USB stick
S2: and get access to that content, including documents the WI
S2: fi portion of the player allows you to access the
S2: Vision Australia Library if you want to, but if you
S2: don't want to and you want to sit back and
S2: listen to you, your good old audio CD collection and
S2: other stuff, it's an absolutely amazing player.
S1: Now to a very current device, the Victor Reader Stream three.
S2: I know this is always one of my favorite players,
S2: these ones. So the Victor Rita stream, of course, you've
S2: got two modes. You've got an online mode which will
S2: leave at the moment. The offline mode, though, allows you
S2: to read existing daisy books on the player, off an
S2: SD card or a USB stick. Yet again, you can
S2: record and playback audio notes, you can access documents. So again,
S2: you can do quite a huge variety of having the
S2: player just by its little self.
S1: And one of my favorite devices, the sense player from hymns.
S2: Yeah. And look, I must admit that this thing is
S2: also one of my favorite things as well. It's probably
S2: more favorite than the Victor Stream three, mainly because it
S2: does all the things that we just talked about for
S2: the Victor Reader Stream itself. Plus you can also do
S2: text notes so you can actually use, you know, the
S2: little little number pad keyboard to take text notes for yourself.
S2: You can also use and I know I keep banging
S2: on about this, Stephen, every now and again, but if
S2: you plug in a pair of headphones, you've got access
S2: to an FM radio with me for emergencies with floods
S2: and fires is also important. And plus, don't let me
S2: forget to mention the fact that you can connect it
S2: as a smart keyboard up to your smartphone or tablet.
S2: So it really is an extremely versatile, portable daisy player, etcetera.
S1: And we won't talk about the online or web radio
S1: facility built into it. The podcasts are very good. If
S1: you download your podcast before you lose your internet, very
S1: easy to navigate around those. Yeah. Now back to Human,
S1: where the brilliant Braille display series, the 20 X and
S1: the B 40 x.
S2: Yeah. So of course these are the 20 cell version,
S2: the 40 cell refreshed mobile display version. And the reason
S2: why I like that is, I guess is because they're
S2: not just dumb Braille displays. So dumb displays are where
S2: it just displays brown. There's nothing you can do unless
S2: you plug it into a, you know, a PC or
S2: a mobile device. These ones have also got built in applications.
S2: So and what I like in particularly about both of
S2: these units is the fact that you've got a little
S2: editor in it so you can, you know, take notes
S2: whenever you need to. And you can also, again, if
S2: you've downloaded a, you know, a daisy book to it, particularly,
S2: you know, a daisy text book to read offline. And
S2: of course, again, because it's a hybrid Braille display again,
S2: you can also link it up again to your smartphone
S2: or tablet or PC.
S1: So that's the brilliant Buy series from Human, where the
S1: 20 X and the 40 x also from Human, where
S1: the Mantis Q 40. This is a quirky keyboard with Braille.
S2: That's right. So you've got your traditional. Bit like a laptop.
S2: And then underneath that you've got the 40. So Braille display,
S2: similar functionality. What the brilliant Bics and 40 X gave
S2: you as far as the, you know, editor and Daisy book,
S2: but you are using a cruder keyboard. So the main
S2: thing I like about this is normally when you use Braille,
S2: you have a, you know, your separate Braille display with
S2: your Perkins style keyboard to your query keyboard. This allows
S2: you to have one device that does both your keyboarding
S2: and also does your bar display. So so you're actually
S2: almost getting rid of what you are getting rid of
S2: one device, which is the keyboard.
S1: Mm Yeah. Let's move now to getting around, maybe moving around.
S1: We'll start with the we walk.
S2: So this is called a smart cane and people get
S2: a bit confused because the smart cane itself is a
S2: sonar based cane. So that's the handle that you attach
S2: to the cane. And then it's got a little sonar
S2: unit on it which sends out a pulse. So a
S2: sound pulse comes back and it vibrates depending on how
S2: close or far away an object is. Now, that sonar
S2: function is independent of the rest of the smart stuff,
S2: which comes off the We Walk app, which you then
S2: run on your Android phone or your iPhone, which does
S2: all the the map type stuff and navigation stuff. But
S2: the walk itself as far as a sonar based device
S2: is completely independent. I've been connected to a smartphone because
S2: you don't need the app to use the sonar function.
S1: Yeah, very interesting. And now let's go to more human
S1: wear stuff, the Vector Reader Trek and Stellar Trek.
S2: So what I like to say about both these devices.
S2: So in a nutshell, both of them are g-p-s based.
S2: And again, they don't need to be online to get
S2: access to the maps like you do and most of
S2: the time on your smartphone. So they're completely offline for
S2: the map. So you can download the maps and off
S2: you go. The main differences between the two of these
S2: is the Victoria Trek is is a little bit old.
S2: Some of it's g-p-s scanning technology is a bit old.
S2: So particularly if you are using it in a high
S2: populated environment with tall buildings, I always recommend going to
S2: the stellar trek. And the other major difference of course,
S2: is the fact that the Victor Trek also has the
S2: victor Strain pointed into it as well. So it's got
S2: both the offline and online versions of all the stuff
S2: you get in a normal vector reader Stream three. And
S2: the other thing about the stellar trek is it's got
S2: a little built in camera. So if you want to
S2: do a bit of optical character recognition while you're out
S2: and about, you can also do that as well on
S2: the the stellar trek. But they're both extremely good. I
S2: have both of the units and I know if I'm
S2: travelling to Sydney on the train, I tend to use
S2: the Victoria Trek itself because I won't also listen to,
S2: you know, podcasts, check out documents, that sort of stuff,
S2: while I also got access to a GPS unit as well.
S1: Let's go now to the wearables, the glasses, the Orcam
S1: has been around a while now. Describe that one to
S1: people for non-smokers.
S2: You may not get this, but it's the size of
S2: a little cigarette lighter that people to use back in
S2: the old days, or maybe they still use them now.
S2: So it's very tiny, eclipsed to the side of your
S2: glasses via a magnetic connection. And it does things like
S2: optical character recognition of things that the camera or you
S2: are looking at. It also does face recognition, barcode identification,
S2: color identification, currency identification and so on and all that
S2: sort of stuff is actually done offline. So again, no
S2: internet required in this tiny little device. And again, what
S2: I like about it is that you do not have
S2: to use it connected to absolutely anything. It's a standalone
S2: unit completely. So if you're worried again about all this
S2: sort of stuff these days about getting, you know, traced
S2: and tracked, you physically cannot do it with the orcam.
S2: So it's a really great secure device, particularly for employment.
S2: Stephen Where you've got things to do in high security situations.
S1: Now let's move to the Envision glasses.
S2: So these are pretty spectacular. They do similar things to
S2: what the Orcam does. But I should say one of
S2: the intriguing online things to keep in mind with the
S2: Envision glasses now is that it's using ChatGPT for so
S2: the AI to ask interesting questions and you can also
S2: use it for contacting the IRA online video service. So
S2: I know I'm only talking about offline today, but I
S2: just wanted to remind people about that functionality. But as
S2: far as the the offline stuff is, it's very powerful
S2: and most of the functions these days, particularly with the
S2: current update to the Envision glasses, is most of its
S2: functionality now is pretty much offline, including all the the
S2: OCR stuff, facial recognition and so on.
S1: And that continues to evolve, doesn't it, because of the technology.
S1: That's there that can take the software upgrades.
S2: Yeah, I keep saying, you know, we're on a bit
S2: of a wave at the moment. We haven't stopped developing
S2: and we haven't even hit the crest of the wave yet.
S2: So let's just keep riding the wave and see where
S2: it takes us.
S1: Michael the cost of those devices that you all came in,
S1: the envision, they are in the vicinity of $5,000. It
S1: sort of varies depending on what you purchase.
S2: That's right. And you can get, you know, based on
S2: reports and assessments and that's the stuff you can get
S2: them both funded, you know, for such things such as
S2: the NDIS or job access workplace assessments as well. So
S2: I know a lot of this stuff sounds very expensive,
S2: but you can actually usually get some sort of funding
S2: for them as well.
S1: If you qualify for that.
S2: Indeed, yeah.
S1: Now let's talk about the Kinect 12 for low vision people.
S2: What this is, it's a basically based on an Android tablet,
S2: but when you use it, it comes with a little
S2: external camera and it allows you to do knee and
S2: distance viewing. And this is particularly of use for students
S2: at school or university or TAFE, because what you can
S2: do is use a video magnifier and then hey presto,
S2: you can switch back to that quote Android part of
S2: it and you can take notes and all that sort
S2: of other cool stuff. So it's a really good device
S2: for having basically a 2 in 1 video magnifier and
S2: a night tracker in one device.
S1: That's available through the Vision Store of Vision Australia, isn't it?
S2: Correct. So all the stuff that we've talked about so
S2: far in this show, well, actually everything we've talked about,
S2: it's all available from the Vision Australia Vision Store. Yes.
S1: So staying with low vision devices, tell me about the
S1: Mercury 13 Pro.
S2: Yeah, this is an intriguing one because this is actually
S2: a surface pro laptop. So again, it's running the Mercury
S2: magnification software again with a really, really, really, really good
S2: distance and near viewing camera again for using whiteboards and
S2: lab work at, you know, school, TAFE, uni, whatever else.
S2: And the fact it's running windows is very important because
S2: if you're using other applications such as, you know, Microsoft Word,
S2: Excel Outlook, all that sort of cool stuff, then you
S2: can do that as well. So primarily it's the it's
S2: a focusing of the magnifier as it does with the
S2: Kinect 12. But because it's running Windows, in some ways
S2: you've got a lot more flexibility than you are with
S2: the Kinect tool, which is Android. But again, it's different
S2: courses for horses and you can choose which one fits
S2: you most appropriately.
S1: For those who particularly like the physical buttons, the Blind
S1: Shell Classic two phone is very popular, isn't it?
S2: It is because it's basically custom made apps for us
S2: blind and low vision folks. So there's no complicated stuff.
S2: It's all really done with basically up and down and
S2: the select key on the blind shell. And because there's
S2: a lot of stuff on there, such as your contacts,
S2: your calendar games, the magnifier that's built into it, using
S2: the camera, the flashlight, looking in the pantry. There's quite
S2: a lot of things that you can do with the
S2: phone when you're not connected to a cellular network or
S2: the Wi-Fi network.
S1: We haven't got time to go through everything that's on
S1: your list, but smart watches should be paid some attention.
S2: That's right. So when you think about it, smartwatches normally
S2: come off your smartphone. So there's quite a few things
S2: that you can do if you've just got your smartwatch
S2: by itself. And there are things like keeping track of
S2: your health and wellbeing, time and date, checking your calendar,
S2: because most of the stuff's already synced up from your smartphone,
S2: including even books and music.
S1: Terrific. Just before we go, a reminder of where people
S1: can find details of what we've been talking about in
S1: this and previous editions of the program.
S2: It needs, and including all the links that we've talked
S2: about today For all the products, you can check out
S2: my website, which is David, would it be a dot
S2: podbean Podbean.
S1: Com David would be dot podbean podbean to right to
S1: the program.
S2: You can write to me at Vision Australia where I work,
S2: which is David Dot Woodbridge at Vision australia.org.
S1: David Dot Woodbridge at Vision Australia. Dawg this has been
S1: talking tech with me has been Vision Australia's National Advisor
S1: on Access Technology David Woodbridge. I'm Stephen Jolley. Stay safe.
S1: We'll talk more tech next week. See you.