WEBVTT - Talking Tech 1st October 2024 0:00:33.232 --> 0:00:37.283 Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from 0:00:37.313 --> 0:00:41.303 October the 1st, 2024. I'm Stephen Jolly. Great to have 0:00:41.303 --> 0:00:45.143 you with us listening maybe through Vision Australia radio, associated 0:00:45.143 --> 0:00:48.952 stations of the Radio Reading Network or the Community Radio Network. 0:00:49.643 --> 0:00:52.013 There's also the podcast. To catch that, all you need 0:00:52.013 --> 0:00:54.923 to do is search for the two words talking tech 0:00:54.923 --> 0:00:57.743 and Dan O'Connell. Come usually on a Tuesday afternoon just 0:00:57.743 --> 0:01:00.773 after it's been produced. Another option is to ask your 0:01:00.773 --> 0:01:04.432 Siri device or smart speaker to play Vision Australia Radio 0:01:04.433 --> 0:01:09.893 talking tech podcast. Vision Australia Radio talking tech podcast with me. 0:01:09.923 --> 0:01:14.962 Vision Australia's national access technology manager Damo McMorrow. Hey, Damo. 0:01:15.083 --> 0:01:16.283 Hi, Stephen. How are you? 0:01:16.313 --> 0:01:20.003 Very well and lots to chat about again today. Let's 0:01:20.003 --> 0:01:23.513 start with smart wearables, and I'd like to ask you 0:01:23.513 --> 0:01:27.773 in particular about the meta Ray-Ban smart glasses. 0:01:27.893 --> 0:01:33.323 Sure. So these are made by Ray-Ban. So they look, 0:01:33.322 --> 0:01:38.033 for all intents and purposes, like a regular set of sunglasses. 0:01:38.483 --> 0:01:42.653 Ray-Ban have partnered with meta, who is the company that 0:01:42.743 --> 0:01:49.163 is responsible for Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, those sorts of platforms. 0:01:49.403 --> 0:01:54.983 So these glasses have a small camera in the sort 0:01:54.983 --> 0:01:57.503 of left hand top left hand corner of the frame. 0:01:57.623 --> 0:02:01.643 The right hand arm of the glasses is a touch 0:02:01.643 --> 0:02:04.793 sensitive area that you can use for adjusting volume, and 0:02:04.793 --> 0:02:08.243 that type of thing. The speakers you get the audio 0:02:08.243 --> 0:02:11.213 from are built into the arms of the glasses, so 0:02:11.213 --> 0:02:13.673 they're not bone conduction, it's just that they sit sort 0:02:13.673 --> 0:02:15.443 of at the ends of the arms very close to 0:02:15.472 --> 0:02:19.882 your ears. They have a camera built into them. They 0:02:19.883 --> 0:02:24.083 pair to your phone via Bluetooth. They were really designed 0:02:24.083 --> 0:02:29.032 originally for the kind of Instagram Facebook market. So the 0:02:29.032 --> 0:02:32.183 idea being that people could take point of view, type 0:02:32.183 --> 0:02:37.603 photographs and post them straight to their Instagram feed or Facebook. 0:02:37.603 --> 0:02:42.613 But these things have some nice features that we as 0:02:42.613 --> 0:02:48.132 blind people can use. So they use Meta's own AI engine. 0:02:48.132 --> 0:02:52.303 And so you can do various things with that. You 0:02:52.303 --> 0:02:56.442 can use them like a set of Bluetooth headphones, as 0:02:56.442 --> 0:02:58.483 it were, so you can play your music through them. 0:02:58.482 --> 0:03:02.713 You can send messages, that type of thing by voice, 0:03:02.713 --> 0:03:05.502 but you can also ask it various questions so you 0:03:05.502 --> 0:03:08.203 can say things like, hey, meta, look and tell me 0:03:08.203 --> 0:03:11.382 what you see. Uh, hey, meta, look and read me 0:03:11.382 --> 0:03:14.473 any text. Um, look and tell me if there is 0:03:14.472 --> 0:03:18.673 any signage. Um, look and tell me what color this 0:03:18.673 --> 0:03:21.883 shirt is. Uh, look and tell me what color pants 0:03:21.882 --> 0:03:24.852 this would go with all of those kinds of things. 0:03:24.882 --> 0:03:26.293 You use them yourself, don't you? 0:03:26.322 --> 0:03:28.843 I do, yes. Also, I should mention they do come 0:03:28.843 --> 0:03:31.513 in a few different frame styles and different lenses so 0:03:31.512 --> 0:03:33.703 you can get polarized ones, or you can just get 0:03:33.732 --> 0:03:36.763 the sort of plain dark lenses. I have the Ray-Ban 0:03:36.763 --> 0:03:42.403 Meta Wayfarers, which are a sort of a trapezoid shaped lens. 0:03:42.433 --> 0:03:46.813 My wife has the headliner, which are more the traditional 0:03:46.843 --> 0:03:49.963 sort of round glasses, and then they have another one 0:03:49.963 --> 0:03:52.693 called the Skylar, which I haven't seen yet, but it's 0:03:52.693 --> 0:03:56.623 a different shaped lens again. Um, I got them really 0:03:56.623 --> 0:03:59.953 just to experiment with. I mean, they're a they are 0:03:59.953 --> 0:04:04.333 a mainstream piece of tech. Um, they're around about sort 0:04:04.333 --> 0:04:09.343 of $450, and they're available from your standard sunglasses type shops. 0:04:09.343 --> 0:04:11.533 And I just sort of wanted to see what I 0:04:11.533 --> 0:04:14.173 could do with them. I liked the idea that it was, 0:04:14.203 --> 0:04:16.063 you know, perhaps a mainstream bit of tech that we 0:04:16.063 --> 0:04:19.363 could use. Um, it doesn't do all of the things 0:04:19.363 --> 0:04:22.513 that things like the envision or the Arcs vision can 0:04:22.513 --> 0:04:24.823 do in that it when you try to read text, 0:04:24.823 --> 0:04:27.433 it will want to summarize it rather than reading it 0:04:27.433 --> 0:04:31.543 in its entirety. But certainly for environmental scanning and that 0:04:31.543 --> 0:04:33.133 kind of thing, I find it quite good. I was 0:04:33.133 --> 0:04:36.013 in Melbourne the other week and, uh, was using it 0:04:36.013 --> 0:04:39.733 to just help me find some shops. I don't come 0:04:39.733 --> 0:04:42.342 from Melbourne, I'm based in Brisbane and I was trying 0:04:42.343 --> 0:04:45.823 to navigate the Block Arcade in Collins Street in Melbourne 0:04:45.823 --> 0:04:47.743 and you know, just being able to use it to 0:04:47.773 --> 0:04:50.983 help me identify shops and things was actually quite helpful. 0:04:51.013 --> 0:04:54.703 Now with these glasses, meta have recently gone into partnership 0:04:54.703 --> 0:04:58.903 with Be My Eyes. Now Be My Eyes are one 0:04:58.903 --> 0:05:04.063 of the organisations who have support people or agents available 0:05:04.063 --> 0:05:09.313 from anywhere in the world as volunteers who will explain 0:05:09.343 --> 0:05:11.082 things to you that you might want to know about, 0:05:11.113 --> 0:05:13.392 like where the battery went to, that you dropped on 0:05:13.393 --> 0:05:16.873 the floor, etc. but this is an interesting partnership, isn't it? 0:05:16.903 --> 0:05:19.723 It is, and it's probably one of the biggest news 0:05:19.723 --> 0:05:23.623 stories in assistive tech of the week. So yes, they 0:05:23.623 --> 0:05:27.343 are partnering officially with meta. And the idea is that 0:05:27.343 --> 0:05:31.243 once the feature is released, you will be able to say, 0:05:31.273 --> 0:05:34.903 hey meta, call the volunteer on Be My Eyes and 0:05:34.903 --> 0:05:38.253 the volunteer will then be able to interpret things through 0:05:38.283 --> 0:05:43.323 your glasses camera rather than the camera built into your phone. 0:05:43.323 --> 0:05:46.353 So if you were, you know, needed some hands free 0:05:46.383 --> 0:05:48.963 navigation or something like that, or if you were cooking 0:05:48.963 --> 0:05:50.703 and you wanted to know, hey, does this steak look 0:05:50.703 --> 0:05:53.703 like it's done? Um, what have I got the stove 0:05:53.733 --> 0:05:56.343 set to? That kind of thing. Um, you know, all 0:05:56.343 --> 0:05:59.853 of those sort of visual interpretation tasks that we would 0:05:59.853 --> 0:06:02.043 normally use our phone for. It just gives you a 0:06:02.043 --> 0:06:04.893 nice hands free option. Um, you know, if you were 0:06:04.893 --> 0:06:08.733 navigating through an airport or something like that. IRA also 0:06:08.733 --> 0:06:12.513 have an implementation in beta as well. So IRA is 0:06:12.513 --> 0:06:16.593 a similar kind of visual interpretation service, but it's not free. 0:06:16.593 --> 0:06:22.533 It's a paid subscription. Whereas uh, Be My Eyes utilizes volunteers. Unfortunately, 0:06:22.533 --> 0:06:24.993 the IRA implementation at this point in time is a 0:06:24.993 --> 0:06:28.053 little clunky. And it's it's using WhatsApp as its video 0:06:28.053 --> 0:06:32.883 call engine, whereas the partnership between Meta and Be My 0:06:32.883 --> 0:06:36.243 Eyes means that it's seamless and accessible through the app. 0:06:36.243 --> 0:06:38.853 So it is quite an exciting development, I think. 0:06:38.883 --> 0:06:41.043 Is that available in Australia yet? 0:06:41.073 --> 0:06:44.253 No. Not yet. It's only just been announced in the 0:06:44.253 --> 0:06:47.973 last couple of days, I think Wednesday or Thursday last week. 0:06:48.003 --> 0:06:51.483 But I get the impression that it's certainly not far away. 0:06:51.483 --> 0:06:54.303 It is in beta. I have heard that there are 0:06:54.303 --> 0:06:57.063 people testing it and that kind of thing. So I 0:06:57.063 --> 0:06:58.593 don't think it'll be far away. 0:06:58.623 --> 0:07:02.943 Let's turn to Humanware now and prodigy. There's been a 0:07:02.943 --> 0:07:03.993 major update. 0:07:04.023 --> 0:07:07.833 Some of you may be familiar with the humanware prodigy magnifiers, 0:07:07.833 --> 0:07:11.103 the old prodigy duo or the Prodigy Connect, which was 0:07:11.103 --> 0:07:16.113 their tablet based solution. They've now released the prodigy software 0:07:16.473 --> 0:07:19.593 for windows, and the idea of this is that you 0:07:19.593 --> 0:07:24.363 can run it on a windows laptop or tablet and 0:07:24.393 --> 0:07:28.323 have a document camera connected, and it can serve as 0:07:28.323 --> 0:07:33.753 a portable magnification slash OCR solution. So you could, for example, 0:07:33.783 --> 0:07:36.363 if you know as a student, you might use it 0:07:36.363 --> 0:07:39.453 to OCR, for example, a worksheet, or you might just 0:07:39.453 --> 0:07:42.543 choose to magnify it if there were graphics on it. Um, 0:07:42.543 --> 0:07:45.393 you can, depending on the camera that you have connected, 0:07:45.393 --> 0:07:48.783 you can also use it for distance, magnification and then 0:07:49.053 --> 0:07:54.273 potentially again, uh, OCR that and convert it to spoken text. 0:07:54.273 --> 0:07:56.343 And they have it in a few different versions. You 0:07:56.343 --> 0:07:59.553 can download the software as a 14 day trial, which 0:07:59.553 --> 0:08:04.143 is nice, and you can get it as a software only, 0:08:04.143 --> 0:08:05.823 or you can get it as a bundle with a 0:08:05.823 --> 0:08:11.433 camera or with a camera and a surface. Microsoft Surface Laptop. Um, 0:08:11.433 --> 0:08:14.583 so yeah, it provides a nice a nice portable option 0:08:14.583 --> 0:08:18.993 for students or anyone needing a portable magnification and OCR 0:08:19.023 --> 0:08:20.313 solution on the go. 0:08:20.373 --> 0:08:25.683 Mm. Very good. Tell us now about Harjanne consulting and 0:08:25.983 --> 0:08:30.423 amongst the work that Brian Harjanne does the Lacie product. 0:08:30.573 --> 0:08:35.043 So Harken Consultancy is headed up by Brian Harken, who's 0:08:35.043 --> 0:08:39.003 probably one of the world's most prolific jaws scripters. And 0:08:39.003 --> 0:08:42.752 they do a range of different products including things like 0:08:42.753 --> 0:08:47.583 scripts for the station playlist. Broadcasting suite. They've got scripts 0:08:47.583 --> 0:08:50.973 for the Twitter website. Scripts for Zoom and Teams. And 0:08:50.973 --> 0:08:54.543 they also do a bunch of online training courses. Lisi 0:08:54.543 --> 0:08:59.703 is a productivity tool that bolts onto Jaws, and it 0:08:59.703 --> 0:09:03.332 provides a whole range of different options. There is a 0:09:03.333 --> 0:09:04.922 couple of versions of it. There's one that sort of 0:09:04.953 --> 0:09:08.043 functions like a menu system for people who are very 0:09:08.043 --> 0:09:12.542 new to computer use. And then there's the Lisi advanced product, 0:09:12.543 --> 0:09:14.403 which allows you to do all kinds of things. You 0:09:14.402 --> 0:09:17.732 can do things like have a whole bunch of shortcuts. 0:09:17.732 --> 0:09:20.522 For example, if there's different blocks of text that you 0:09:20.553 --> 0:09:23.553 frequently use in a report, you can set those up. 0:09:23.553 --> 0:09:27.543 You can call up any of your web favourites from anywhere. 0:09:27.543 --> 0:09:31.683 You can use it for posting to various social media 0:09:31.683 --> 0:09:34.713 platforms from anywhere. You can listen to radio stations in 0:09:34.713 --> 0:09:37.953 the background while you're working. There's a whole bunch of 0:09:37.982 --> 0:09:41.152 sort of time saving things that they've introduced and the 0:09:41.152 --> 0:09:45.862 latest build, addresses some issues with things like the VLC 0:09:45.892 --> 0:09:49.823 media player. If you do a an insert t in 0:09:49.823 --> 0:09:52.643 jaws 2024, which normally gives you a window title, it'll 0:09:52.642 --> 0:09:55.372 tell you the status of the window as well. If 0:09:55.402 --> 0:09:58.463 you if you quickly press that key twice, it is 0:09:58.463 --> 0:10:02.632 a product that's constantly evolving and you know they generally 0:10:02.632 --> 0:10:05.033 have an update ready as soon as there's a new 0:10:05.033 --> 0:10:09.833 version of jaws available. And yeah, it really does offer 0:10:09.833 --> 0:10:13.102 a lot of, um, a lot of productivity improvements and 0:10:13.102 --> 0:10:16.372 just ways of getting to information with a couple of keystrokes. 0:10:16.402 --> 0:10:19.643 Lisi l e a s y. We'll put the address 0:10:19.642 --> 0:10:24.263 to Harjanne Consulting in the show notes. You mentioned jaws 2024. 0:10:24.293 --> 0:10:27.593 Jaws 2025 is not far away, along with the other 0:10:27.593 --> 0:10:33.023 Freedom Scientific Updates, fusion and Zoomtext. Tell us about that. 0:10:33.173 --> 0:10:37.372 Sure. So, um, the there are some quite exciting new 0:10:37.372 --> 0:10:42.533 features in jaws slash fusion. Probably the biggest ones that 0:10:42.533 --> 0:10:45.263 come to mind is the PFS companion, which is an 0:10:45.262 --> 0:10:48.683 AI search type tool that allows you to ask questions 0:10:48.683 --> 0:10:53.482 about Jaws commands, Microsoft products, you know. So how to 0:10:53.512 --> 0:10:57.382 do something in Outlook or Excel for example? It is 0:10:57.382 --> 0:11:00.833 limited to sort of Jaws use Microsoft product use that 0:11:00.833 --> 0:11:02.543 kind of thing. So you couldn't ask it for a 0:11:02.693 --> 0:11:06.053 recipe for chocolate muffins. But if you wanted to know 0:11:06.053 --> 0:11:10.703 how to, for example, sort something in Excel or how 0:11:10.703 --> 0:11:15.502 to use the OCR feature in Jaws or something like that, 0:11:15.502 --> 0:11:17.663 you can do that. You can ask it questions in 0:11:17.693 --> 0:11:21.323 that sort of conversational style, and it will respond and 0:11:21.323 --> 0:11:23.333 give you the, you know, a number of different pieces 0:11:23.333 --> 0:11:26.122 of information. So it's a good way to, uh, to 0:11:26.152 --> 0:11:31.043 search for, you know, commands, particularly given that the things 0:11:31.043 --> 0:11:34.343 like the Microsoft Office suite seems to change every five 0:11:34.343 --> 0:11:37.102 minutes at the moment. And, um, you know, so there's 0:11:37.102 --> 0:11:40.163 always new commands or slightly new ways of doing things. 0:11:40.193 --> 0:11:43.662 The other big one is the continuous OCR feature. We've 0:11:43.663 --> 0:11:46.943 had convenient OCR for a while, which enables you to 0:11:46.973 --> 0:11:50.602 scan or OCR things like PDFs that have started life 0:11:50.602 --> 0:11:53.783 as a scanned document or controls on your screen that 0:11:53.783 --> 0:11:56.573 are perhaps not labelled. But this allows you to do 0:11:56.602 --> 0:12:01.313 continuous OCR so that as the screen changes, it continues 0:12:01.313 --> 0:12:04.403 to perform OCR and drop the results into a virtual 0:12:04.402 --> 0:12:06.863 viewer so that you can look at them. So if 0:12:06.892 --> 0:12:10.162 you're trying to navigate screens that are not accessible. It 0:12:10.163 --> 0:12:14.242 provides a really good way of doing that. As usual, 0:12:14.272 --> 0:12:18.232 a whole range of other bug fixes and performance improvements 0:12:18.232 --> 0:12:21.383 and that kind of thing. Likewise, with zoom text, they've 0:12:21.382 --> 0:12:26.573 made some changes to the multi-monitor modes in response to 0:12:26.602 --> 0:12:30.652 user feedback. They've also made quite a few tweaks under 0:12:30.652 --> 0:12:33.262 the hood that improve things like start up time with 0:12:33.262 --> 0:12:36.323 the zoom text and so on. Definitely some some quite 0:12:36.323 --> 0:12:37.912 exciting improvements coming. 0:12:37.913 --> 0:12:40.553 So that'll be out from the end of October. The 0:12:40.553 --> 0:12:45.763 upgrades to those products, zoom text, Jaws and fusion from 0:12:45.793 --> 0:12:50.112 Freedom Scientific. Now hats off and thank you to our 0:12:50.112 --> 0:12:54.852 friend and colleague Jonathan Mohsin, because over the weekend, he 0:12:54.852 --> 0:13:01.992 dropped the final edition of the Living Mindfully podcast 305. 0:13:02.022 --> 0:13:07.783 It was. That includes the Mohsin at Large podcasts that 0:13:07.783 --> 0:13:11.862 were available for many years as well. Great service to 0:13:11.892 --> 0:13:16.782 the blind community of the world with lots of product demos, 0:13:16.783 --> 0:13:22.543 conversation and discussion of blindness issues. It's going to be missed. 0:13:22.573 --> 0:13:26.382 Absolutely. It's something that I listen to very regularly. It's 0:13:26.382 --> 0:13:29.053 a great source of, as you say, demos, but also 0:13:29.053 --> 0:13:33.583 some really good discussions around ride share refusals and behavior 0:13:33.583 --> 0:13:36.223 of airlines when it comes to assistance dogs and all 0:13:36.252 --> 0:13:39.672 of those kinds of things. So hats off to Jonathan. 0:13:39.673 --> 0:13:43.632 He's done a fantastic job, provided a really well produced 0:13:43.632 --> 0:13:45.073 and informative podcast. 0:13:45.102 --> 0:13:47.612 Those podcasts will stay around for some time If you 0:13:47.612 --> 0:13:50.073 haven't caught up with them yet and downloaded them, and 0:13:50.073 --> 0:13:52.352 I'm sure we'll hear from Jonathan from time to time 0:13:52.352 --> 0:13:56.493 as he moves into his new career phase with the 0:13:56.492 --> 0:14:00.633 National Federation of the blind in the United States. Now, 0:14:00.632 --> 0:14:03.063 just before we go, a reminder of where there are 0:14:03.063 --> 0:14:05.943 details of what we've been talking about in this and 0:14:05.943 --> 0:14:10.473 previous editions of Talking Tech, you can go to VA radio, 0:14:10.473 --> 0:14:14.973 dot org slash talking tech. VA radio, dot org slash 0:14:14.973 --> 0:14:17.372 talking tech and to right to the program. 0:14:17.732 --> 0:14:23.403 People can send an email to Damo Damo McMorrow mkmo 0:14:23.433 --> 0:14:28.083 w r o w at Vision australia.org. I always enjoy 0:14:28.083 --> 0:14:29.672 receiving your emails. 0:14:29.703 --> 0:14:35.343 Damo McMorrow at Vision australia.org. This has been talking tech 0:14:35.343 --> 0:14:39.873 with me has been Vision Australia's national access technology manager 0:14:39.903 --> 0:14:43.233 Damo McMorrow. I'm Stephen Jolly. Stay safe. We'll talk more 0:14:43.233 --> 0:14:44.553 tech next week. See you.