S1: Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from
S1: August the 27th, 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 the Community Radio Network.
S1: There's also the podcast. To catch that, all you need
S1: to do is search for the two words. Talking tech
S1: and DNA can all 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: with me. For the last 12 years I've been saying
S1: Vision Australia's David Woodbridge. Well, David is still with us,
S1: but you're not Vision Australia's now, David, there's been a
S1: bit of a change after 34 years of service through
S1: Vision Australia. Congratulations on that.
S2: Thank you. But it also sounds like I'm getting very,
S2: very old, so I am not too sure. But yes,
S2: I have moved on from Vision Australia. And can I
S2: say though, is that while I've enjoyed my time at
S2: Vision Australia and number two, I am really excited to
S2: look into the future. I can't share much yet, but
S2: I will definitely be around and about.
S1: Don't worry, I'm going to try and get more out
S1: of you over the next few minutes about the future,
S1: but let's go right back. 34 years ago, when you
S1: walked in to the office of the Royal Blind Society
S1: at Enfield in Sydney, what sort of a job did
S1: you walk into?
S2: Well, back then we were called the technology resource officer roles,
S2: which actually made me feel like I was a troll
S2: hiding under a bridge somewhere and popping out and surprising people. Basically,
S2: what I used to do for the next 15 years
S2: or so was to basically assess, recommend, install, support, and
S2: train people on assistive technology and or mainstream stuff for home,
S2: work and education. So it really hasn't changed that much,
S2: except the thing that I had back then to use
S2: as far as technology went was a landline phone, a
S2: original Toshiba 1000 PC plus running keynote. And I think
S2: about a year when I first started, I think I
S2: also got a Braille and speak. So there were the
S2: three things that I use. So no mobile phone, no smartphone,
S2: no graphical user interface. It was all DOS. Um, people
S2: might remember good old WordPerfect 5.1. That's what I used
S2: a lot of the time. And we were we were
S2: really great, Stephen, because later on in a couple of
S2: years later, we got a pager. So you got a beep, beep,
S2: beep notification from the pager. And then when you got
S2: to the next town, when you're out and about seeing
S2: clients in rural areas, you then could find a phone
S2: and then ring back the office and say, I believe
S2: I've got a message So I remember those days fondly.
S1: I think it was in 1994. I first had a
S1: conversation with you. I was wrestling with the graphic user
S1: interface for windows, and a friend said to me, talk
S1: to this bloke at the Royal Blind Society in New
S1: South Wales, David Woodbridge. Fortunately, where I worked, I had
S1: access to an STD line, so I rang David Woodbridge.
S1: You probably don't remember that conversation, but it did help
S1: me along the way with one of the early screen readers.
S1: It was the IBM Screen reader. So there was the
S1: graphic user interface, and there's been other challenges as well.
S1: Tell us about sort of the maybe the three things
S1: that have made a difference that you've had to conquer.
S2: Yeah, of course, as we all know, it was the
S2: graphical user interface. Of course, with windows. And it took
S2: a long time between, you know, windows 3.1 and 3.11
S2: coming out until we got proper screen reading, because doing
S2: it via the IBM Screen Reader OS two, because you
S2: had to run OS two. So GUI stuff. Can I
S2: just say that from an Apple loving point of view?
S2: I was using the Mac in 1990. So I wasn't
S2: too worried about the GUI with windows because I had
S2: already been using a mac already with outspoken. So windows.
S2: The next major thing was smartphones. Now I won't say
S2: who this person was, but in 2009 I got really
S2: excited about, of course, the iPhone and then subsequent Android phones.
S2: The person at the time said, oh, do you really
S2: think this will take off? Or does David just think
S2: it's a gimmick? And I still remember that person's statements
S2: quite well. And of course the third one, which I'm
S2: excited to see. Where that goes, of course, is the
S2: multiline braille and graphics display from Humanware. So, you know,
S2: so we go to DOS to go. We go from,
S2: you know, landline phones to mobile phones to smart phones,
S2: and we go from single braille lines to multi-line braille
S2: and graphics. And so that's to me, are the three
S2: amazing events that have happened in the 30 or so
S2: years I've been at BHS. And then Vision Australia.
S1: For the person listening who's not a Braille person, maybe
S1: the casual person driving somewhere that's hearing talking tech, just
S1: unpack that one a little bit more about the multi-line
S1: braille display and the graphics.
S2: So traditionally a braille display is normally, you know, the
S2: tiny little ones are 14 cells, so 14 characters across.
S2: Then you've got sort of different ones. You've got 20, 24, 32,
S2: 40 and then the humongous ones which are 80, um,
S2: which you'd have on your desk, of course. But the
S2: thing about that is that you can't then like, look
S2: at a graphic or a tactile graphic on the screen
S2: because you've only got one line you can imagine trying
S2: to if you're a sighted person trying to scan up
S2: and down a visual screen, one line at a time. Well,
S2: what this does, it puts that whole graphic on and
S2: the really cool thing about it, Stephen, with the monarch,
S2: you can have an overall picture of the tactile, let's
S2: say the Eiffel Tower, and then you can zoom in
S2: and see much more detail. And that to me is
S2: absolutely amazing. So we're getting very close in a way
S2: to what sighted people get.
S1: So what's going to be catching your attention in the future?
S2: A couple of things. Smart glasses, because they are really
S2: getting close to being an assistive technology as well as
S2: a mainstream product. Number two is to see where orientation
S2: mobility goes, because we're always knowing that there's things coming
S2: out like the biped, the glide, and so on. And
S2: the third one, and probably the most important one for me,
S2: is where artificial intelligence will take us as far as
S2: assistive technology, mainstream productivity, education, so on and so on
S2: is concerned. So to me, you know, this came on
S2: the market very rapidly in the last 3 or 4
S2: years and it's just like a snowball. It's just gathering momentum.
S2: It's gathering more mass as it goes down the hill.
S2: And I've really jumped on the bandwagon with AI because
S2: it's made my job for doing research, for talking tech
S2: and other stuff that I do for social media and
S2: so on a lot easier.
S1: You can see a lot of good with AI. More
S1: good than bad though. Any bad could be really big bad,
S1: but that's for sort of the external world.
S2: To look out there. That's right. And look like like
S2: if everything. I mean, every time I listen to the news,
S2: I take it with a grain of salt because I
S2: think it's one person's point of view or it's one
S2: media corp point of view. So like if everything just
S2: use it with common sense, like if you're told the
S2: world's black and then you know quite well that it's blue,
S2: then I don't know if I'd actually believe it. Somebody
S2: told me it was black. Use everything with a grain
S2: of salt and a bit of common sense, and I
S2: think everybody will be fine.
S1: So what's happening for David Woodbridge over the next few
S1: months and years?
S2: I've got some interesting prospects coming ahead, which I'm actually
S2: really excited about. Hopefully I'll be able to share one
S2: of them hopefully next week when I come back to
S2: do the program again. Um, besides that, all my social
S2: media stuff stays in place, so I'm still doing Mastodon X,
S2: I'll still be doing my IC podcast. I'll still be
S2: sharing all the information that I normally share. So really,
S2: in some ways not much has changed. I'll still be
S2: around in some form or another.
S1: Yeah. Well, that's very good. And of course, as we
S1: go into September, we'll have Apple announcements to deal with.
S2: We certainly will. And the speculation at the moment from
S2: quite a few different sources. So again, take this with
S2: a grain of salt, is the fact that the Apple
S2: event will be on September 10th, of course, which will
S2: be September 11th, 3 a.m.. Our time in Australia on
S2: a Wednesday morning. Correct. And it'll be a thing, of course,
S2: the normal stuff. So it'll be the iPhone. Um, it'll
S2: be the Apple Watch. There's some speculation that they may
S2: release Mac OS alongside of it, because there's new features
S2: in iOS 18 that requires the new version of the Mac,
S2: so I wouldn't be surprised if the Mac gets the
S2: same launch date, because normally it's about a month later.
S2: The beta stuff's going really well. I must say, it's
S2: actually quite stable now. I think I mentioned a while
S2: ago that it was very unstable. Now it's quite solid
S2: and I'll still be doing it on the Tech Doctor
S2: blog and podcast. So I'm really looking forward to the
S2: date and see what happens. Mhm.
S1: You say the beta is going well. What things can
S1: we look forward to? You have mentioned in the past
S1: the simulated braille device keyboard that we'll get with iOS.
S2: Yeah. Look that's actually really amazing. So for people that
S2: have used things like um, let's see the table one
S2: and all the other concept keyboards, plus the, you know,
S2: the input keyboard off your different devices like your, your
S2: Braille sense scents. And, you know, I've got a few
S2: devices in front of me now, including the brilliant P40. Well,
S2: this is just using them on the flat screen of
S2: the phone. So besides being able to braille in, you
S2: can actually braille navigate by using your normal navigation keys like,
S2: you know, chord or space for space one and so on.
S2: So that's actually really exciting. The other one that's really
S2: exciting is the notifications from your iPhone to your Mac.
S2: So when your iPhone is on the same Wi-Fi network
S2: as your Mac, you can have your iPhone in the
S2: other end of the house, and the notifications from your
S2: phone will pop up on your Mac screen. Then you
S2: can check them. So that's a really great way of
S2: being able to sort of, you know, have your iPhone
S2: on charge, different spot in the house, and then you
S2: can just basically get on with your life. So the
S2: third one, Steven brings me back to I. And that's
S2: the function where you have all these things available with VoiceOver.
S2: You've got object detection, door detection, people detection, text detection,
S2: point and speak where you can point in a touch
S2: screen and find out where the buttons are and so on.
S2: So that's just going to make it extremely interesting. And
S2: as far as things like camera based systems coming up
S2: that do similar things to what the software does, I'm
S2: looking forward to at some stage, somebody doing a comparison
S2: between what a smartphone can do. Let's not forget Google
S2: Lookout that does similar things to what VoiceOver does with
S2: its own inbuilt systems in iOS 18, and I think
S2: it will be a good comparison to see the difference
S2: between your smartphone and what these other hardware devices can do.
S2: Because when I got my iPhone in 2009, I replaced
S2: about 30 different items that all these apps replaced. So
S2: it'll be interesting to see where the the iOS and
S2: Android goes as compared to these hardware devices in the future.
S1: There's an app you've been telling me about that you
S1: run on the Mac called whisper.
S2: Yes. And this is one of those things that I
S2: wish I had a long time ago. Mind you, it
S2: probably didn't exist a long time ago. So what it is,
S2: is you can bring in any audio file. So normally
S2: that would be an audio file of somebody talking in
S2: an interview or a podcast or whatever else it might be,
S2: and then you can very quickly ask it to then
S2: transcribe that into basically a text file. And then you
S2: can do anything you like with that text file. So
S2: for me, um, a lot of the research for talking
S2: tech that I really haven't spoken about lately and how
S2: I do it, I just don't check out social media stuff.
S2: I listen to a lot of audio content, but I
S2: can speed it up because I grabbed the podcast. I
S2: work it in to whisper for the Mac. I then
S2: can very quickly just go through the text and go
S2: yep yep yep. No. Yep no no. Yep yep yep.
S2: And keep all the stuff that I want and I
S2: end up with a summary. Now, if I was going
S2: to be a little bit smarter, I could then take
S2: that text into ChatGPT and say, summarize this document for me. So,
S2: you know, I've only been doing that lately, but this
S2: thing is as flexible as your mind can make it.
S1: So there's this audio that you might discover in a
S1: podcast on your phone. How do you get it to
S1: the Mac and get the text? How quickly can you
S1: have it as well?
S2: So let's say that it's already downloaded. I'm on my Mac. Um,
S2: it's a little bit hard in the podcast app because
S2: it buries the audio file and it's not named very well,
S2: so that's one way to do it. The other way
S2: that I tend to do it is I airdrop it
S2: from my iPhone to my Mac, so it ends up
S2: in a nice spot that I can access it properly.
S2: So that would take, I don't know, let's say 45
S2: seconds to transfer across. I open the app, I then
S2: tell it to go and open up this file. That
S2: takes another, I don't know, 10s. I then run the
S2: transcribing function that takes probably up to about a minute
S2: and a half or two minutes, depending on the size
S2: of the file. I save it. So I think all
S2: up from having the audio file on my iPhone to
S2: having a text file on my Mac that then I've
S2: got to edit, of course, and have a look at
S2: probably takes no more than about three minutes.
S1: Before we go. A reminder of where there are details
S1: of what we've been talking about in this and previous
S1: editions of the program.
S2: Indeed. So as usual, you can still check out my
S2: blog site, which is David Woodburn dot podbean.
S1: Com David would be our dot podbean p o d
S1: b e a n.com. Give me another email address.
S2: Indeed. So the new email address is David Woodburn funnily enough.
S2: So David w w o d b r at gmail.com.
S1: David would be David Woodbridge without the ej at gmail.com.
S1: David would be our at gmail.com. This has been talking
S1: tech with me has been Australia's leading blindness technologist, David Woodbridge.
S1: I'm Stephen Jolly. Take care. We'll talk more tech next week.
S1: See you.