S1: Hello everyone! Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from
S1: October 24th, 2023. I'm Stephen Jolly. Great to have you
S1: with us. Listening may be through Vision Australia, Radio, Associated
S1: Stations of Australia or perhaps the Community Radio Network. There
S1: is also the podcast. All you need to do to
S1: get that is to 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 Vision
S1: Australia Radio talking tech podcast Vision 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. There is the old and the new
S1: devices have their life cycle and eventually it gets around
S1: to the time of their passing. We're losing the Sunoo
S1: band we are.
S2: And just to remind people it was a wearable sonar
S2: device that you wore on your wrist, and then it
S2: had this little sort of pointy thing, which was the
S2: sonar sensor itself. And, you know, it's been around for
S2: about six years or so, but I got an email
S2: from the actual company themselves last week, and they said
S2: that due to capital funding and all that sort of stuff,
S2: then they're having to stop operations so that soon a
S2: band is no longer available. What that led me then
S2: to think about was how technology has come and gone
S2: over the last, well, basically for me about 50 years.
S2: So I thought, well, why not have a bit of
S2: a reflection back into the past and maybe what's currently
S2: available still and how it's held on a bit.
S1: So let's look at some of these devices that have
S1: been in our lives. And some of them still can be.
S1: I think one of the big breakthroughs was speech technology,
S1: synthesised speech. Tell us about deck Talk and their accessible device.
S2: The original deck talk. This was sort of like late
S2: 70s or early 80s, but this thing was huge. It
S2: was a big box with very clear speech. So it
S2: was called the Deck Talk Classic. And then we had
S2: the Deck Talk Express, which was a smaller one. And
S2: then when, when sort of PC started to grow up
S2: a bit, we had windows 3.11 that sort of morphed
S2: into the Accessible Deck Talk software. But that to me
S2: is always been the classic voice of a speech synthesizer.
S2: Very clear speech. You used to hear it quite a
S2: lot on those telephony systems that, you know, would answer
S2: the phone and, you know, you'd get the press one
S2: for this, press two for that. So deck talk in
S2: one way. The other was around for a long time,
S2: but I think it's been the last 15 years or
S2: so as we've gone more into software synthesizers, maybe a
S2: bit longer than that.
S1: So now many of us would remember attic vision and
S1: their attic speech.
S2: Yeah, that was the DOS screen reader. So that was
S2: back in the old DOS 3.3 etcetera days. But they
S2: had a really cool device, which was the Arctic Transport,
S2: which was an external synthesizer, and back then it plugged
S2: into its serial port. It feels really funny to talk
S2: about serial ports now, but the cool thing about it
S2: was that you could do a bit of a tricky
S2: command in DOS, and you could upload or download what
S2: you want to call it, the Screen reader Arctic Business
S2: Vision from the transport or from the hardware itself. So
S2: no matter where you went onto a, you know, a
S2: DOS PC, you had access to your screen reader. And
S2: I thought that was just a really nifty thing. And
S2: you could imagine some sort of things these days that
S2: if you did have an external synthesizer, wouldn't it be
S2: cool to have a current windows screen reader that you
S2: could just do that with if you needed to?
S1: Now let's move into the Braille area, the Elva Braille Courier.
S2: This is the one that I really wish was available today.
S2: So if you can imagine a little 20. So Braille
S2: display with a Perkins style keyboard on one side and
S2: the other side, there was a little tiny little Atari computer.
S2: So if a screen and a keyboard and it was
S2: a two way communication device for a deaf blind person,
S2: so the hearing person would sit on the side where
S2: the the little Atari computer was, and then the other
S2: person on the other side of the table where the
S2: braille display and the Perkins style keyboard was. Now, keep
S2: in mind that this is all one device, and it
S2: was just absolutely amazing. And even that device today would
S2: have its place. But again, it's it's long gone for
S2: the last 20 years or so.
S1: The device that came into my life in 1989 and
S1: made quite an impression because I'm still talking about it.
S1: Braille and speak.
S2: Same here. I got my first Braille and speaker, I think,
S2: in 1990, and it was just one of those little
S2: things that all it did was text editing. So you
S2: turned it on, you took notes, you could save it,
S2: you could have multiple different files, and you turned it off.
S2: And that was. The end of it. It was a
S2: simple Braille input keyboard, spacebar speech output. It just did
S2: what it was designed to do. And again, as I
S2: kept saying today, just to have a little brown speak
S2: next to me, which would still be relevant today, would
S2: be absolutely amazing.
S1: Tell me about the business memo.
S2: The business memo was one of these mainstream devices. Because
S2: remember now when you look at the vision store, you've
S2: got not only assistive technology devices but mainstream devices. And
S2: this was a simple nine button mainstream business memo. So
S2: it was basically a digital recorder. You had a button
S2: for next, a button for previous, a button for play
S2: pause and a button for record. And that's all it was.
S2: It used to record up to a whopping eight minutes
S2: of information. And then when you went through it, a
S2: memo by memo, you could also delete the current memo,
S2: or you could delete all memos. But it was a
S2: size back in those days, seven of those little transistor radios.
S2: So it wasn't very big. Then the bottom of it,
S2: you had this nice little round speaker, but like I said,
S2: you just had these number of buttons on it. And
S2: that's all it did was just take little memos for yourself.
S1: Let's talk about software now. Drag and dictate.
S2: I remember using a version of Dragon in the early
S2: 90s that again, of course, we're talking about, you know,
S2: having control over the computer. And back then it was
S2: in DOS and there was a version of vocalize, which
S2: was a screen reader for DOS back then that was
S2: particularly modified to work with Dragon. So when you're giving
S2: it commands or you're dictating, and now if you bring
S2: that into the into the future now Naturallyspeaking, which is
S2: still Dragon, is still around. And of course, people that
S2: use jaws will be very familiar with the Jason and
S2: Jay dictate software that sits between Jaws, the screen reader
S2: for Windows and Dragon Naturally Speaking, so it's still around
S2: and still extremely good for voice hands free operation of
S2: your computer.
S1: Do you remember the Freedom Box?
S2: The good old freedom box. A bit of a funny
S2: joke with this one. Originally when it came out it
S2: was called the Freedom Box, and then they had to
S2: change it because Freedom Scientific didn't like the name Freedom
S2: Box because it's too close to the product. But literally
S2: what it was was a plug in USB stick that
S2: came up with its own talking interface for browsing the
S2: internet and so on. And you didn't have to install
S2: anything on the computer. You just plug in the USB
S2: stick and off you went. And it's those sort of
S2: things again, I wish today. So things like the dolphin
S2: Guide software, that would be really cool if you could
S2: do a similar thing. Plug a USB stick in. Hey presto!
S2: You've got a very simple menu driven interface for doing
S2: things like web browsing, contacts, that sort of cool stuff.
S1: I don't remember I pad on wheels.
S2: I've been trying to find out the exact name for
S2: this thing, so hopefully next week when I pester the
S2: person at Apple, I'll be able to find the name
S2: of it. But if you can imagine a device that
S2: has got a couple of wheels on the bottom, and
S2: then you've got a long pole sticking up in the
S2: top of that pole, you've got an iPad. And what
S2: the iPad is doing, it's controlling this wheeled trolley, if
S2: you like, that's connected remotely via the internet. Or I
S2: think back then it was like, you know, 4G or 3G.
S2: So a person remotely could control the iPad to say,
S2: turn left, turn right, that sort of stuff. And it
S2: would actually move the motors on those wheels. So you
S2: could actually literally walk around when I played to fit
S2: where I was walking with the iPad and it was
S2: in Melbourne, this person was in Sydney, and we strolled
S2: through a whole shopping centre with me, talking to the
S2: person via FaceTime on the iPad, and they could see
S2: exactly what the camera was seeing on the iPad, and
S2: we just had a chit chat. So I was literally
S2: like having a sighted guide through an iPad sitting on
S2: this sort of like dolly wheelie type system.
S1: We've got to talk about mobile phones.
S2: Yeah. And I caused when we went from, you know,
S2: traditional Nokia Symbian type phones with talks on them. I
S2: can remember there was sort of a huge, oh no,
S2: what's happening to us. Like we went from windows to
S2: windows or like when we went from text based mobile
S2: phones to graphics phones like the iPhone and Android phones.
S2: Everybody thought it was going to be the end of
S2: the world. But to some extent, I love the old
S2: talk software on the old Nokia, particularly the new two,
S2: because it had such a lovely keyboard and of course
S2: because it was strongly menu sort of DOS menu driven.
S2: It was such an easy find to use. So in
S2: some ways, again, I know the Blind Show Classic two
S2: comes close to it, but it would be really nice
S2: if we could have that sort of similar interface back
S2: again that we when we had the first Nokia phones around.
S1: Two devices from right back in the 70s, we should
S1: touch on the optical and also the sonic glasses.
S2: These are two, two devices that I absolutely wish we
S2: had around today. So the optical people didn't know what
S2: the object was. You literally had a little handheld camera
S2: that was connected via cable to the optical hardware. You
S2: put your finger on a vibrating pad, and then as
S2: you push the camera across the page, the print would
S2: come up in vibrating letters on the optical vibrating little
S2: pad that you had had your finger on, and it
S2: literally meant that you could read any type of print.
S2: So it was absolutely amazing. And then the sonic glass,
S2: which again I wish was around today, there was a
S2: guy I'll name him because he probably is listening. Andrew Downey,
S2: who was an absolute amazing user of this technology. The
S2: sonic glasses basically was a star system, and when it
S2: hit different objects, it would have different sounds. So a
S2: sound of a brick wall versus a person versus like
S2: clean air had all different sounds. And people that got
S2: very good at using these devices could literally tell you
S2: what the sonic glasses were hearing or seeing. And again,
S2: you know, the fact that the cinnamon's gone, I almost
S2: feel like saying, can somebody resurrect the sonic glasses? Because
S2: that would be really, really cool.
S1: Let's look now at some products that have their genesis
S1: a long time ago, but they still exist, like the
S1: jaws for windows from For Now or Freedom Scientific.
S2: When you think about we had jaws for DOS in
S2: what was at the late 80s, I think, and that's
S2: now still going strong with job access for speech for
S2: windows now, I think that's amazing that, you know, the
S2: company was able to transition absolutely perfectly between the DOS
S2: and the windows environment. And of course, it's still going strong.
S2: It's the major screen reader on the planet these days.
S1: And what about Key Soft, which goes back to the
S1: mid 80s?
S2: I have to chuckle when every time I talk about
S2: keys soft because I had to shape a PC plus
S2: to keep a laptop back in the 90s that had
S2: a dedicated keynote gold speech card in it. And. Even today,
S2: when I think about the monarch, which is the graphics
S2: tablet that we've talked about, that's got key soft in it.
S2: And when you even think about the the bra note touch,
S2: that's got key soft in it. So again, you know,
S2: 30 years since it came out roughly a little bit
S2: more than that. It's still around in one version of another.
S2: And it's almost like well if you knew how to
S2: use case off back in that day, you'll know how
S2: to use it.
S1: Now zoom text.
S2: Zoom text again, one of those long lasting screen magnification software.
S2: So back in the again, the 80s, we had zoom
S2: text for DOS. And then we had zoom text for windows.
S2: And then back then it wasn't actually owned by, which
S2: is now the Whisperer or Freedom Scientific Group. And of course,
S2: we now we have the combination of Jaws and Zoom text,
S2: which is called fusion. So again, from its humble beginnings
S2: as a DOS screen magnifier. It's still around today.
S1: And a device you can put your hand on and
S1: Braille comes out on paper, the Perkins Brailler.
S2: And that's been around for a good long, long, long while.
S2: I actually have one sitting here on my desk, because
S2: sometimes I just want to jot a note down quickly.
S2: I don't want to get out my smartphone or my
S2: laptop or anything else, and I've always got a piece
S2: of paper in my Perkins Brailler so I can take notes.
S2: So when people say, you know, the time has gone off,
S2: good old, old fashioned manual typewriters, I just point to
S2: my Perkins and say, for us blind folks, it's still
S2: there and extremely relevant today.
S1: Well, there's a lot we've talked about there. We still
S1: could talk about a lot more. I'm sure it's brought
S1: back memories for many.
S2: And then you'll find the full list in our show notes,
S2: as usual, before.
S1: We go, a reminder of where we have details of
S1: what you've been talking about, David, in this and previous
S1: editions of the program.
S2: As usual, you can check out my blog site, which
S2: is David. Would it be Podbean Podbean.
S1: Com David would be our Podbean pod be a incom
S1: to write to the program?
S2: You can write to me at Division Australia where I work,
S2: which is David Dot Woodbridge how it sounds at Vision Australia.
S1: Org David Dot Woodbridge at Vision Australia. 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.