WEBVTT - Talking Tech 5th March 2024 0:00:21.408 --> 0:00:25.458 Hello everyone! Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from 0:00:25.458 --> 0:00:29.358 March the 5th, 2024. I'm Stephen Jolley. Great to have 0:00:29.358 --> 0:00:32.928 you with us listening maybe through Vision Australia, Radio, Associated 0:00:32.928 --> 0:00:37.188 Stations of Australia or perhaps the Community Radio Network. There 0:00:37.188 --> 0:00:39.828 is also the podcast. To catch that, all you need 0:00:39.828 --> 0:00:42.858 to do is search for the two words talking tech. 0:00:42.858 --> 0:00:45.288 And then they can all come, usually on a Tuesday 0:00:45.288 --> 0:00:48.588 afternoon just after it's been produced. Another option is to 0:00:48.588 --> 0:00:51.888 ask a Siri device or smart speaker to play Vision 0:00:51.888 --> 0:00:57.198 Australia Radio talking tech podcast Vision Australia Radio talking tech 0:00:57.198 --> 0:01:01.098 podcast with me, someone who can explain all this tech 0:01:01.098 --> 0:01:05.808 stuff really well. Vision Australia's national advisor on access technology, 0:01:05.808 --> 0:01:10.758 David Woodbridge. David, we're not starting really high tech this week, 0:01:10.758 --> 0:01:13.128 but it is something from the vision store as we 0:01:13.128 --> 0:01:15.648 talk about a product from the vision store of Vision 0:01:15.648 --> 0:01:18.378 Australia each week, coloring books. 0:01:18.378 --> 0:01:22.398 So the whole series is called my first coloring book. 0:01:22.788 --> 0:01:27.048 And at the moment we've got three online. We've got animals, 0:01:27.048 --> 0:01:32.598 fruit and vehicles and basically what they are, they're a 0:01:32.598 --> 0:01:38.328 tactile raised drawing of, let's say, for example, an animal. 0:01:38.328 --> 0:01:41.058 And then on that page you've also got the name 0:01:41.058 --> 0:01:44.538 in braille and as well as print of the actual 0:01:44.538 --> 0:01:48.288 animal in this case. So the nice thing is you 0:01:48.288 --> 0:01:51.048 can ever use that to if you want to and 0:01:51.048 --> 0:01:52.938 you don't have to, you can colouring in for your 0:01:52.938 --> 0:01:55.908 heart's content on that front part of the page. Or 0:01:55.908 --> 0:01:58.368 you can turn it over and then if you like, 0:01:58.368 --> 0:02:00.468 because it's a raised drawing on the other side, you've 0:02:00.468 --> 0:02:03.798 officially got an indented or an engraved version of the 0:02:03.798 --> 0:02:06.948 picture that you can also colouring in on the back. 0:02:06.948 --> 0:02:09.228 So I guess I haven't seen these yet, Steve, because 0:02:09.228 --> 0:02:12.438 I only ordered mine over the weekend, but I've been 0:02:12.438 --> 0:02:16.128 assuming the maybe the animal's also been colored in properly 0:02:16.128 --> 0:02:18.498 on the front. So I'll talk about next week when 0:02:18.498 --> 0:02:20.358 I get my hands on it and show it to 0:02:20.358 --> 0:02:22.968 my daughter with her grand well, with my grandson and 0:02:22.968 --> 0:02:26.148 her grandson. Um, so I'm assuming it's probably pre colored 0:02:26.148 --> 0:02:27.858 on the front, and then you do your own coloring 0:02:28.128 --> 0:02:31.698 on the back of it. I would have loved this 0:02:31.698 --> 0:02:34.938 with my own children as a blind dead when my 0:02:34.938 --> 0:02:38.448 kids were young, being able to enjoy coloring in and 0:02:38.448 --> 0:02:41.148 talking about the animals or the vehicles, whatever your essay 0:02:41.148 --> 0:02:44.328 might be doing, and the reason why I brought up 0:02:44.328 --> 0:02:46.428 the other two at the moment for the fruit and 0:02:46.428 --> 0:02:49.068 the vehicle ones, is because on the website, the moment 0:02:49.068 --> 0:02:54.018 right down the bottom, the animal one says this is 0:02:54.018 --> 0:02:57.108 also a purchase with either the fruit one or the 0:02:57.108 --> 0:02:59.418 vehicle one. So if you if you're not scrolling down 0:02:59.418 --> 0:03:02.178 for her and look far enough, you miss that. So 0:03:02.628 --> 0:03:04.788 be aware of that. And secondly, there's going to be 0:03:04.788 --> 0:03:07.728 about 20 of these books in this coloring series. So 0:03:07.728 --> 0:03:10.578 I think this is absolutely amazing. And of course, at 0:03:10.578 --> 0:03:13.758 the end of the day, it teaches children about shapes 0:03:13.758 --> 0:03:14.538 and so on. 0:03:14.538 --> 0:03:20.208 That's from the vision store of Vision Australia. What are 0:03:20.208 --> 0:03:21.528 loop earbuds. 0:03:21.918 --> 0:03:26.868 These are basically acoustic earbuds. Now when I say earbuds 0:03:26.868 --> 0:03:30.978 I'm not talking about earphone type electrical ones. I'm talking 0:03:30.978 --> 0:03:34.278 about those little foam stopper things that in the old days, 0:03:34.278 --> 0:03:36.738 you're stuck in your ear so that you could walk 0:03:36.738 --> 0:03:40.608 past the jackhammer or go to sleep on an aircraft. Well, 0:03:40.608 --> 0:03:44.148 these are actually like that, but they're much, much, much 0:03:44.148 --> 0:03:50.178 more advanced. So, for example, depending on the silicone tip 0:03:50.178 --> 0:03:54.708 that you attached to the primary loop earbud, it can 0:03:54.708 --> 0:03:58.608 cancel out. And this is again all acoustic. No electronics involved, 0:03:58.698 --> 0:04:04.728 different types of sounds from harsh drumming sounds in a 0:04:04.728 --> 0:04:09.798 musical festival, uh, to other weird noises in an aircraft 0:04:09.798 --> 0:04:12.408 and so on. Now, the ones that I bought were 0:04:12.408 --> 0:04:15.228 very basic. So you literally you got the stem of the, 0:04:15.258 --> 0:04:17.748 of the loop by itself, and then you could attach 0:04:18.018 --> 0:04:21.408 3 or 4 different sizes depending on how big your 0:04:21.618 --> 0:04:26.928 hole is. And these were basically ones for speech and uh, 0:04:26.928 --> 0:04:32.928 general noise. I think it was blow at 24dB, but 0:04:32.928 --> 0:04:35.328 the one that's $96. And the reason why I mentioned 0:04:35.328 --> 0:04:37.908 the price roughly, is because that one is the one 0:04:37.908 --> 0:04:39.618 that I really want to get, and this one has 0:04:39.618 --> 0:04:44.208 got some sort of acoustic ring mechanism where you can 0:04:44.208 --> 0:04:47.448 adjust it between the different types of sounds that you 0:04:47.448 --> 0:04:50.508 want to filter out, whether it's sort of, you know, 0:04:50.508 --> 0:04:55.128 brown noise, white noise, jackhammers, aircraft noise and so on. 0:04:55.128 --> 0:04:57.768 So my wife has given me full permission to go 0:04:57.768 --> 0:05:00.918 and buy the more expensive one. But as a starter, 0:05:00.918 --> 0:05:03.828 these things are absolutely amazing. Now what I haven't tried 0:05:03.828 --> 0:05:06.828 out myself personally, I haven't tried to wander outside and 0:05:06.828 --> 0:05:08.778 walk down the road with these in my ears because 0:05:08.778 --> 0:05:10.938 I'm a bit worried about how would I hear what's 0:05:10.938 --> 0:05:14.238 around me, but you can definitely wear them inside. But 0:05:14.238 --> 0:05:17.448 for me personally again, and listen to people talking to you, 0:05:17.448 --> 0:05:20.808 but all the other sounds have that sort of slightly deadened. 0:05:20.918 --> 0:05:23.468 A sound, so it's not so overwhelming. 0:05:23.738 --> 0:05:27.398 Amazon Echo A new smart speaker. Just a little one. 0:05:27.608 --> 0:05:29.498 I think this has been around for a little while. 0:05:29.498 --> 0:05:32.468 I think it's just only because it's now noticeable in 0:05:32.468 --> 0:05:35.648 Australia via the Amazon.com website. So basically what it is, 0:05:35.648 --> 0:05:40.568 if you can imagine a round Amazon Echo third generation, 0:05:40.568 --> 0:05:43.118 which was the round one, which had the, you know, 0:05:43.118 --> 0:05:44.948 the volume up and volume down, and then on each 0:05:44.948 --> 0:05:47.648 side of that cross, it had the the actions button 0:05:47.648 --> 0:05:50.168 and the mute button. Well, if you cut that thing 0:05:50.168 --> 0:05:53.138 in half and put a speaker on the front of it, 0:05:53.138 --> 0:05:57.668 take away the 3.5mm headphone jack. Uh, take away the 0:05:57.668 --> 0:05:59.948 actions button and the mute button. So literally you've just 0:05:59.948 --> 0:06:03.638 got to play pause, volume up and volume down. That's 0:06:03.638 --> 0:06:06.548 the echo pop. So it's meant to be for those 0:06:06.548 --> 0:06:09.578 people that just want a little smart speaker to control 0:06:09.578 --> 0:06:12.128 their home and to get relevant information about the time, date, 0:06:12.128 --> 0:06:16.058 and weather. Uh, I would suggest personally, if you've already 0:06:16.058 --> 0:06:19.568 got an echo two or echo three hanging around as 0:06:19.568 --> 0:06:21.938 a bit of a spare, um, you are not going 0:06:21.938 --> 0:06:25.148 to get any more extra advantage in buying one of these, 0:06:25.148 --> 0:06:28.628 particularly because for me, with my echo three, I can 0:06:28.628 --> 0:06:32.198 still plug in a external wired speaker if I wish, 0:06:32.198 --> 0:06:33.518 not just Bluetooth. 0:06:33.638 --> 0:06:38.738 There's a new accessible recorder around the zoom H6 essential, 0:06:38.738 --> 0:06:42.668 and Jonathan Mohsin speaks well of it and speaks very 0:06:42.668 --> 0:06:43.898 well explaining it. 0:06:43.928 --> 0:06:46.718 He does. So I did this on the Blind Pod 0:06:46.718 --> 0:06:53.258 Makers podcast. This zoom recorder actually does speak the menus, 0:06:53.258 --> 0:06:57.398 which is number one, pretty amazingly fantastic. And the way 0:06:57.398 --> 0:07:00.308 he went about talking about XLR mics being plugged in, 0:07:00.308 --> 0:07:04.478 cables being plugged in, using the built in microphone versus 0:07:04.628 --> 0:07:09.008 an external microphone, linking up as an audio device to 0:07:09.008 --> 0:07:12.758 your computer, transferring files backwards and forwards, all that sort 0:07:12.758 --> 0:07:15.668 of stuff is 100% accessible. He did point out a 0:07:15.668 --> 0:07:18.758 few things which are not that great. For example, when 0:07:18.758 --> 0:07:22.058 you arm or disarm a track, the beeps exactly the same. 0:07:22.058 --> 0:07:24.818 But he said, as a, you know, as I go 0:07:24.818 --> 0:07:29.258 at accessibility for, you know, a first release, it's pretty amazing. 0:07:29.258 --> 0:07:33.998 So this is a full blown six track make your 0:07:33.998 --> 0:07:36.758 breakfast and coffee type thing in the morning. Um, but 0:07:36.758 --> 0:07:41.288 he will be reviewing two other essential units in the 0:07:41.288 --> 0:07:44.348 Zoom Essential series. So this is the top end one, 0:07:44.348 --> 0:07:46.718 I'm assuming. Then he'll then do the medium one and 0:07:46.718 --> 0:07:49.808 the low end one. But I just think it's amazing, Steven, 0:07:49.808 --> 0:07:55.118 that now we have a fully accessible by itself recorder 0:07:55.118 --> 0:07:58.328 that you can independently use with speech output. And the 0:07:58.328 --> 0:08:00.578 fact that is, when you take this out of the box, 0:08:00.578 --> 0:08:04.418 the first option is guide on or off. Now by 0:08:04.418 --> 0:08:07.628 default it's on. So for all sighted people, they just 0:08:07.628 --> 0:08:09.008 know how to turn it off because it just says 0:08:09.008 --> 0:08:11.438 on off toggle on the screen I reckon that's amazing. 0:08:11.438 --> 0:08:14.138 That really is like an Apple product when it first 0:08:14.138 --> 0:08:16.478 comes up. When you set up your Mac or your iPhone, 0:08:16.478 --> 0:08:18.788 you've got speech first and then you choose to ignore it. 0:08:19.058 --> 0:08:21.038 And most people have to get that annoying thing out 0:08:21.038 --> 0:08:25.208 of the way first. The annoying speaking thing. It's more 0:08:25.208 --> 0:08:28.388 than a recorder, though, isn't it? It's an audio interface. 0:08:28.388 --> 0:08:30.398 It's a playback mixer. Literally. 0:08:30.398 --> 0:08:34.658 It's like a having a recorder, let's say a vector 0:08:34.658 --> 0:08:37.418 read a stream, which has got all these other amazing 0:08:37.418 --> 0:08:40.868 features with it. I'm probably going to get my hands 0:08:40.868 --> 0:08:44.258 on one of them. Um, I'm not sophisticated enough to 0:08:44.258 --> 0:08:47.288 use this H6 essential one. Um, so hopefully I'll be 0:08:47.288 --> 0:08:49.988 looking at the other ones, but it's amazing. This one's 0:08:49.988 --> 0:08:53.738 about $499 Australian. Um, so let's see what the other 0:08:53.738 --> 0:08:55.388 one's coming out later on this year. 0:08:55.628 --> 0:08:56.978 Physically, what is it? 0:08:57.368 --> 0:09:00.728 If you take the size of, let's say, my hand, 0:09:00.728 --> 0:09:04.028 my current recorder, which is the track P4 from zoom, 0:09:04.478 --> 0:09:09.818 the recorder is slightly shorter from my wrist to my fingertips, 0:09:10.028 --> 0:09:13.568 and it's the same width as my hand. Now that's 0:09:13.568 --> 0:09:18.458 about the size of the zoom H6 essential. So it's 0:09:18.458 --> 0:09:22.418 not enormous. It's not small. What Jonathan said is that 0:09:22.418 --> 0:09:24.548 you could probably try and fix it in your pocket 0:09:24.548 --> 0:09:27.338 if you really, really pushed. But it's not. It's not 0:09:27.338 --> 0:09:29.048 a pocket recorder. You've still got to carry it around 0:09:29.048 --> 0:09:29.738 in your hand. 0:09:29.738 --> 0:09:33.668 So for people who are Braille users, those braille displays 0:09:33.668 --> 0:09:37.208 like the brilliant by 20 x, it's sort of in 0:09:37.238 --> 0:09:38.678 that area. Correct. Right. Exactly. 0:09:38.678 --> 0:09:39.548 Yeah, exactly. 0:09:39.698 --> 0:09:43.718 Very interesting to see how that goes. Now, you read 0:09:43.718 --> 0:09:48.518 something recently on the microphone for speech recognition you need 0:09:48.518 --> 0:09:49.388 a reasonable one. 0:09:49.748 --> 0:09:53.498 Correct. So this was written by a person who has mis. 0:09:53.498 --> 0:09:57.038 And what he said was that over the years he's 0:09:57.038 --> 0:09:59.228 used different microphones because I think he said he was 0:09:59.228 --> 0:10:05.978 a retired BBC presenter or journalist. And because when you've 0:10:05.978 --> 0:10:09.758 got a mess, your voice is not as loud sometimes 0:10:09.758 --> 0:10:12.848 or soft depending on how you're feeling, you're not always 0:10:12.848 --> 0:10:16.658 pronouncing words clearly and so on. But what he found 0:10:16.658 --> 0:10:20.978 was that the better the microphone the. Better. It was 0:10:20.978 --> 0:10:23.768 for the software in the background to actually work out 0:10:23.768 --> 0:10:27.128 what he was saying, and he said there was two 0:10:27.128 --> 0:10:30.608 important things to remember in doing this is that, number one, 0:10:31.418 --> 0:10:36.158 when you're using voice dictation, the clearer the microphone, the 0:10:36.158 --> 0:10:39.848 more accurate your voice dictation is going to be. Um, 0:10:39.848 --> 0:10:41.528 and I've been finding that a lot with Siri at 0:10:41.528 --> 0:10:44.288 the moment. I've been trying to use it, um, with 0:10:44.288 --> 0:10:46.388 another different type of headset. And what can I say, 0:10:46.388 --> 0:10:50.318 my voice dictation has been absolutely appalling. That's number one. 0:10:50.318 --> 0:10:52.658 The second one is to control your system. Now, I'm 0:10:52.658 --> 0:10:55.958 not talking about Siri or a lady or Google or 0:10:55.958 --> 0:10:59.828 anything else. I'm talking about controlling your computer from your voice, 0:10:59.828 --> 0:11:02.978 such as opening up documents, going back to your desktop, 0:11:02.978 --> 0:11:05.588 all that sort of stuff again, where the system has 0:11:05.588 --> 0:11:08.468 to be able to hear what you're saying. Uh, so 0:11:08.468 --> 0:11:10.238 what is at the end of the day is the 0:11:10.238 --> 0:11:13.358 clearer the microphone is, the closer this to your mouth, 0:11:13.358 --> 0:11:15.968 the more powerful the microphone is, the better off you are. 0:11:16.478 --> 0:11:20.378 And if anybody tells you that you can use your laptop, 0:11:20.378 --> 0:11:24.308 microphone or a cheap microphone to use voice dictation or 0:11:24.308 --> 0:11:27.398 voice control, um, they're living on a different planet. So 0:11:27.398 --> 0:11:29.108 if you want to get the best out of a 0:11:29.108 --> 0:11:32.528 voice system that you're using your voice to control it, 0:11:32.528 --> 0:11:35.468 then at the very least, the microphone needs to be 0:11:35.468 --> 0:11:37.778 right near your mouth, and it needs to be a reasonable, 0:11:37.778 --> 0:11:40.988 good quality. So have a really this linked article in 0:11:40.988 --> 0:11:42.728 the show notes. And it's quite interesting. 0:11:42.818 --> 0:11:46.988 Let's talk now about the envision AI app and that 0:11:46.988 --> 0:11:51.758 it's available on the blind show classic two phone. Tell 0:11:51.758 --> 0:11:52.958 us what the app is about. 0:11:53.108 --> 0:11:57.488 So the envision AI app, it's a Swiss Army knife utility. 0:11:57.488 --> 0:12:00.458 So it actually gives you things like barcode reading, QR 0:12:00.458 --> 0:12:06.428 code reading, face recognition, object recognition, uh, cash or currency notification. 0:12:06.548 --> 0:12:11.168 So it's sort of similar to what's seeing. I actually does, uh, 0:12:11.168 --> 0:12:16.478 it's available on Android, iOS. And of course now the 0:12:16.478 --> 0:12:19.748 blind show classic two as an application that you can 0:12:19.748 --> 0:12:24.278 install and remember also that all three of these different 0:12:24.278 --> 0:12:28.268 types of phones, of course, support the envision AI glasses, 0:12:28.268 --> 0:12:29.948 which is, of course, the ones you wear with the 0:12:29.948 --> 0:12:33.608 camera that does everything that the app can do, except 0:12:33.608 --> 0:12:36.878 it's much more usable because you're wearing them on your face. Um, 0:12:36.878 --> 0:12:40.988 I personally still have concerns about a lot of this 0:12:40.988 --> 0:12:47.558 stuff to do with face recognition, object recognition, and scene detection. Uh, 0:12:47.558 --> 0:12:49.568 and of course, the difference between object recognition and scene 0:12:49.568 --> 0:12:52.778 detection is object detection is just one object. Saying detection 0:12:52.778 --> 0:12:56.318 is telling you what's the whole range of objects in 0:12:56.318 --> 0:13:00.728 your environment. And number one, it's still a bit slow. 0:13:00.728 --> 0:13:05.168 And number two, it still doesn't get it quite accurately correct. 0:13:05.168 --> 0:13:08.558 So I personally think we're about a couple of years 0:13:08.558 --> 0:13:13.088 away from this thing being 100% accurate. Um, I still 0:13:13.088 --> 0:13:15.848 have to double check with people to say, is it 0:13:15.848 --> 0:13:18.578 really seeing an X, y, and z object in front 0:13:18.578 --> 0:13:21.998 of my house? Or is it something different? And you know, 0:13:21.998 --> 0:13:26.198 5 to 10% of the time it's inaccurate. But as 0:13:26.198 --> 0:13:29.768 a an option for people particularly to use on your iOS, 0:13:29.768 --> 0:13:32.708 Android or blind or Classic two and it's free, you 0:13:32.708 --> 0:13:34.388 don't need to buy the class with it. It's a 0:13:34.388 --> 0:13:35.918 great option to have in your toolkit. 0:13:36.158 --> 0:13:40.628 I'm curious about it on the Blind Child Classic because 0:13:40.628 --> 0:13:43.868 that's a very different kind of phone. It's got physical buttons, 0:13:44.138 --> 0:13:44.708 so the way. 0:13:44.708 --> 0:13:47.018 It works on the Blind Show classic two is the 0:13:47.018 --> 0:13:49.868 way you interact with it is not so much, well, 0:13:49.868 --> 0:13:52.088 there's no touch screen, so you can't touch the screen. 0:13:52.088 --> 0:13:55.238 You literally use your up and down arrows and then 0:13:55.238 --> 0:13:59.708 press the okay button, uh, to select different options with it. 0:13:59.708 --> 0:14:02.198 And it talks about the results to you when it 0:14:02.198 --> 0:14:04.928 goes off and does its little business about object recognition 0:14:04.928 --> 0:14:07.298 or facial recognition and so on. It plays a cute 0:14:07.298 --> 0:14:10.058 little really relaxing sound, and then it comes back with 0:14:10.058 --> 0:14:14.288 the result. So from beginning to end, it's a very straightforward, 0:14:14.288 --> 0:14:16.958 simple interface, but also quite powerful. 0:14:17.348 --> 0:14:20.078 Before we go, a reminder of where there are details 0:14:20.078 --> 0:14:22.688 of what you've been talking about in this and previous 0:14:22.688 --> 0:14:23.918 editions of the program. 0:14:23.918 --> 0:14:26.108 Indeed. So as always, you can check out my blog site, 0:14:26.108 --> 0:14:30.848 which is David would be a Podbean pod band comm. 0:14:30.848 --> 0:14:34.268 David would be a pod bean pod b e a 0:14:34.268 --> 0:14:36.338 incom to write to the program. 0:14:36.338 --> 0:14:38.378 You can write to me in Australia where I work, 0:14:38.378 --> 0:14:42.668 which is David Woodbridge how it sounds at Vision Australia. 0:14:42.908 --> 0:14:47.828 Org David Woodbridge at Vision Australia. Org this has been 0:14:47.828 --> 0:14:51.008 talking tech with me has been Vision Australia's national advisor 0:14:51.008 --> 0:14:55.208 on access technology David Woodbridge I'm Stephen Jolly stay safe. 0:14:55.208 --> 0:14:56.738 We'll talk more tech next week. See you.