S1: Hello everyone! Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from
S1: February the 20th, 2024. I'm Stephen Jolly. Great to have
S1: you with us listening maybe through Virgin Australia Radio, Associated
S1: Stations of Australia or perhaps the Community Radio Network. There
S1: is also the podcast. To get the podcast, 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. Vision Australia's national advisor on access technology,
S1: David Woodbridge David, let's start with a little bit of
S1: a vision store off. That's the the shop of Vision
S1: Australia news for people particularly who use the Parramatta Centre.
S2: Indeed, what's happening between February 21st and April 22nd is
S2: that they're doing quite a few renovations downstairs on the
S2: ground level, which just happens to be where the vision
S2: store is. So of course, with renovations, that means the
S2: vision store has to close. So what we tend to
S2: recommend is then you can certainly purchase all your Vision
S2: Australia products via the online shop, which is the Shop
S2: Vision Australian website. Or if you need to get your
S2: hands on a product to have a bit of a
S2: play with before you purchase, then remember that you can
S2: also visit the Caring Bar Office, the Epping office and
S2: they'll be able to give you hands on demos. Just
S2: keep in mind though, that with the comb bar and
S2: the Epping offices, they're actually smaller places and we just
S2: can't fit the amount of stuff that we actually have
S2: in the vision store at Parramatta. So ring up beforehand
S2: via the main one 308 4746 number, just to see
S2: if the item that you want to have a bit
S2: of a play with is there. But certainly you can
S2: ring us up on that number. I've just mentioned the
S2: website that I've also just mentioned. Um, and hopefully we'll
S2: be back in business in about two months time.
S1: Yep. Great website shop Vision Australia George. Now a Vision
S1: Australia store product. Our product Minute and my spotlighting the
S1: mini guide this week.
S2: This is always been my favourite device. I want to
S2: say almost from the year dot. It's a little handheld device.
S2: It almost feels like a torch in your hand. It's
S2: got a little cap over the end of it, and
S2: when you pull that cap off, you've got two sonar sensors.
S2: And of course, when you turn the unit on by
S2: the big button on the top of it, um, you
S2: can have it preset to three different levels. So I've
S2: got my anomaly set to 0.5m, uh, two meters. And
S2: I've got mind set to a whopping four meters and
S2: it vibrates. It does have this weird option, Stephen, that
S2: I've never actually used because I can't stand it when
S2: I first heard it. But you can plug in a
S2: pair of headphones and listen to the sonar pulse. And
S2: I must say, there's nothing worse than listening to because
S2: you can't adjust the volume. The sound just is basically overwhelming.
S2: So really, it's a handheld vibrating device. The faster it vibrates,
S2: the closer the object is to you. It's got a
S2: little lanyard on the back of it, so when you're
S2: not using it, you can sort of simply strap it
S2: around your hand. Or I normally put it back in
S2: my pocket, but it's a really great adjunct to your
S2: cane or your your guide dog, because you can just
S2: sort of whip it out when you feel like it,
S2: sort of scan around and take it from there. So
S2: I tend to cheat sometimes when I'm at one of
S2: the stations, because I know when the thing stops vibrating,
S2: then I know it's the end of the world and
S2: I can just tell my guide dog to, you know,
S2: turn left and find the ramp. But I've always liked
S2: the fact that these devices that just have one function,
S2: dare I say, which is object detection, only work very well,
S2: and the mini guide is certainly one of them.
S1: And it's not too expensive.
S2: I don't think so. And look, you know, when we
S2: say not expensive in blindness terms, it's always relative. If
S2: I had to buy this as a sort of person,
S2: I'd say it's a bit horrendous. I think it's about
S2: $700 Australian Hmhm very good.
S1: And that's the mini guide available from the vision store
S1: at Vision Australia. There's some other products that you are
S1: going to be investigating and telling us more about in
S1: the future. One of those, the Ultra cane.
S2: So this is a cane. And again it's only function
S2: is object detection. That's all it does. It's got two
S2: ultrasound devices in or two sonar sounds actually. Um and
S2: again what the what they do is the one that
S2: sort of goes straight out in front of you to
S2: detect objects above your waist height. And then of course,
S2: one that you can do above your head height. Now,
S2: I believe you can change the angles up. I'm not
S2: too sure about my demo units turning up this week. Again,
S2: what I want from an object detection sonar device is,
S2: you know, my cane has already taken care of stuff
S2: below my waist height. I want to know about stuff
S2: above my waist and above my head height in case
S2: I hit my head on a, you know, back of
S2: a backed up high truck or or. Ranch and so on.
S2: So I'm still on the search for the holy grail
S2: of sonar units. I still remember back in the 1970s
S2: when I first tried out the Sonic glasses, and it
S2: still has been nothing yet that replaces the functionality of
S2: that device. What's that practically? Was that 50 years ago?
S1: It is. Yes. And I was one of the fortunate
S1: ones who spent time with that device as well. There
S1: are sonar glasses on the horizon for us.
S2: This is done by a company who produces two products
S2: once called the sonar glasses, and the other one's called
S2: the sonar. I know I mentioned that briefly in a minute.
S2: The sunglasses, it's using sonar, pulsed sound waves to detect
S2: objects in front of you. Again from above your waist
S2: height and above your head height. Um, very straightforward design
S2: from I think it's one up to three meters you
S2: can set it for. And they're just a nice pair
S2: of simple glasses. Now in the States you can also
S2: have them with prescription lenses. So if you happen to
S2: be a low vision person that wants a bit of
S2: extra object detection, you can get that as well. Um,
S2: I don't know if we'll be going to that level
S2: here in Australia if we decide to bring them in
S2: or not. But I thought first the thing we need
S2: to do is evaluate them. Uh, so I'll be doing that.
S2: And the reason why I mentioned the sonar guide briefly before,
S2: it's a device that attaches to a wheelchair. Now it
S2: has to be custom made to fit a wheelchair. Over
S2: the years, I know there's been a few blind people
S2: in particular and very, very low vision people that are
S2: actually in a wheelchair. Uh, so I find it a
S2: bit hard to use a kind motor in a chair.
S2: And I think something like the, the sonar guide, which
S2: attaches to the chair and then gives you indication objects
S2: in front of the chair would be very interesting. So
S2: I'm going to talk to my my boss about that
S2: in the future. But initially it's going to be us
S2: having a look at the sunglasses, which will hopefully turn
S2: up to evaluate for me in the next couple of
S2: weeks or so.
S1: Staying with object detection with the release of the iPhone
S1: 12 Pro that was in 2020, came a technology that
S1: was new to that environment and that's LiDAR. Object detection
S1: is one of the things about LiDAR. Where are we now? Uh,
S1: as we are post the release of the iPhone 15.
S1: So it's good three years.
S2: The lidar itself is still as good as it's ever been,
S2: because literally it's the light bouncing back off an object. And,
S2: you know, if you use the magnifier app in the
S2: iPhone 12 Pro and above, um, people might remember in
S2: Covid that you can tell how far a person is
S2: in front of you. And of course, they've extended its
S2: functionality to do more sort of object recognition type stuff
S2: like door detection, but it's always improving. And there's a
S2: few apps that I will put in the show notes
S2: about some LiDAR apps that will actually help you indicate
S2: how far objects away, because at the moment, object recognition
S2: apps that tell you that the object in front of you,
S2: as far as I'm concerned, still doesn't work properly. And
S2: that's why I'm so keen to rely on there's an
S2: object in front of you, rather than saying there's an
S2: object which is in front of you, because most of
S2: the time I've been finding with my stuff, I just
S2: gets it wrong. Anyway.
S1: Now something with an emphasis really on the needs of
S1: people with low vision. Um, Shelley Brisbane, who lives in
S1: the United States. She's a journalist. She has low vision.
S1: She has explored recently the Apple Vision Pro, a very
S1: interesting article about her initial experience with it.
S2: And I'd say it's a very fair article because she
S2: talked about her experience as a low vision person, the
S2: difficulty to some extent that she had in the actual
S2: shop doing the demo at the Apple Store, uh, she
S2: then went through and basically commented on her experience with
S2: all the different types of demos that she was getting
S2: shown what I liked about it, and she also talked
S2: about that. This is just the starting point for us
S2: in looking at what the Vision Pro can deliver, blind
S2: or low vision people. And I thought that was really
S2: good because this is only the start. Remember, it's a
S2: 1.0 product. It's only been out for less than a month.
S2: It's very, very early days. So rather than us thinking, well,
S2: it certainly won't do what things like the envision glasses
S2: do or other stuff. This is just the beginning. So
S2: let's wait to what happens in the Worldwide Developers Conference
S2: in June. And certainly let's see what happens when a
S2: new device 2.0 comes out, or a lighter version or
S2: whatever else happens. So I think it's watch this space
S2: for the next two years, and I think we'll be
S2: pleasantly surprised.
S1: Shelley Brisbane does a very interesting podcast to the parallel podcast,
S1: which talks about developments in accessibility alongside mainstream technology. Well
S1: worth catching up with if you like podcasts.
S2: It is. It's one of those excellent podcasts and I
S2: find she does a really good job.
S1: Let's move into the screen reader world now. One of
S1: the things that came out with the jaws 2024 release
S1: from Freedom Scientific. It was the split screen mode and
S1: human were have taken quite an interest in this as well.
S2: So this is basically the way that sighted people were
S2: being able to have multiple screens. So what happens is
S2: when you use draws with your browser display. So in
S2: this case the B40 um, you can actually set it
S2: up so that one part of the display will focus
S2: on one item on the screen. And another part of
S2: the display will focus on something else. So you can
S2: keep monitoring things rather than having a sort of alt
S2: tab around or tab around or anything else. This allows
S2: you to be much more productive now. The YouTube demo
S2: that I watched was actually very interesting, but I think
S2: it's definitely one of those things that you're going to
S2: have to learn how to use it by just doing it,
S2: because it had six different modes that you can use
S2: the actual split brow display mode with. So what I
S2: would suggest is pick the one that you want to
S2: use and play with that. And then once you get
S2: comfortable with that particular one, go on to the next one.
S2: But no, it's certainly a really great advancement in using
S2: a screen reader with a Braille display.
S1: Yes. And the wider the braille display, more cells per line,
S1: the better it works for you.
S2: Yeah. This is where you. Wouldn't it be lovely if
S2: you could do this? Well, you can do it on 90.
S2: So braille display because of the focus which is from
S2: Freedom Scientific. Anyway that would be really cool. Maybe that's
S2: an excuse to get a bigger Braille display.
S1: Thinking back over 30 years to the Braille and speak,
S1: which we talked about a few weeks ago, and its descendant,
S1: the BT speak from Blazey Technology. You found a tutorial
S1: about this exciting new device.
S2: So this is the first of, I hope, many tutorials
S2: that Blazey technology will be due in relation to the
S2: BT speak and of course the BT speak Pro and
S2: it sounded really nice when I listened to it actually today,
S2: you know, you could hear the good old dick talk
S2: speech in the background. You could hear what I would
S2: consider the keyboard to be a little bit noisy. Um,
S2: for people that do podcasts, that might be an issue
S2: because you're recording the noise. But no, it definitely went
S2: through a physical, uh, introduction of the device, talked about
S2: the options menu and everything else and device, how to
S2: connect it up to WiFi and so on. So it's
S2: looking very real now. I mean, I know it's going
S2: to be real as of March 1st, and hopefully I'll
S2: have mine very soon after the March 1st release in
S2: the United States.
S1: I'm going to ask you more about this in a
S1: week or two, when you've had more experience with it,
S1: but you've started playing with the 11 labs voices.
S2: Yes. And this is where you can generate your own
S2: personal voice. In my case, you can choose different already
S2: preset voices. So what I've done is I've taken one
S2: of my recordings up to about five minutes. I put
S2: it through the system of 11 labs and generated a
S2: similar sounding voice to my own. And then what you
S2: simply do is you drop text in this edit field.
S2: You then turn it to generate into a talking document, i.e.
S2: my voice speaking. And what happens is initially there's about
S2: three parameters that you can change easily by default, which
S2: is to do things with stability, clarity and emphasis, I think.
S2: So they're all sort of sliders. And what you do,
S2: you play with each one of those sliders. I played
S2: it to my wife and I said, does this sound
S2: like me? And she said, yep. Was that you really
S2: doing it? I went, no, that was a generated version
S2: of my voice done by an AI system. And that's
S2: really scary because as we said before the the radio
S2: show today, Stephen, we could almost write up her own
S2: script and have two eyes talking. People wouldn't know. It's not.
S2: It's not real after all.
S1: Don't worry everyone, we won't do it. Just before we go,
S1: a reminder of where you can find details of what
S1: we've been talking about in this and previous editions of
S1: the program.
S2: You can check out my blog site, which is David.
S2: Would it be Podbean Podbean.
S1: Com David would be dot podbean Podbean. Com to write
S1: to the program.
S2: You can write to me at Vision Australia where I work,
S2: which is David Woodbridge how it sounds to Vision Australia.
S1: Org David Woodbridge at Vision Australia dot org 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 stay safe.
S1: We'll talk more tech next week. See you.