S1: Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from
S1: October the 22nd, 2024. I'm Stephen Jolly, great to have
S1: you with us listening maybe through Vision Australia Radio, associated
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S1: Vision Australia radio talking tech podcast. Vision Australia radio talking
S1: tech podcast with me. Vision Australia's national access technology manager.
S1: Damo McMorrow. Hey, Damo.
S2: Hi Stephen.
S1: This month, which is very much a month around vision
S1: awareness and vision protection. And of course we had International
S1: White Cane Day just a week or so ago on
S1: October the 15th. So let's talk about getting around today.
S1: And the first thing I'd like to mention is an
S1: Australian initiative. Be good to give a shout out to that.
S1: And it's an initiative to make available a new kind
S1: of tip for the cane called sensible. And where the
S1: developers have gone to a lot of trouble to have
S1: something that will cover a lot of different services very
S1: smoothly and perhaps put less stress on the arm. It
S1: can be found@sensible.com.au sensible com.au. It's good to see these
S1: Australian initiatives. Damo.
S2: It absolutely is. And for anyone who's ever got their
S2: cane stuck in a crack in the pavement and winded themselves,
S2: I'm sure it would be a welcome innovation.
S1: Yes. So sensible. Com dot a u. Now let's talk
S1: about the higher technology sort of stuff that's going on.
S1: and there are some interesting devices that are in development
S1: or very early stages of availability. Tell me about the glide.
S2: Yeah, the glide is an interesting one. Gliding is the
S2: company that's producing that one. And they are at this
S2: point a start up. So it's not currently available. And
S2: I think they're initially going to launch it in the
S2: US and the UK. And they have taken some pre-orders
S2: from those countries. It is essentially a guide robot type device.
S2: It's about 8in or 20cm tall, and it has a
S2: telescopic handle that the user holds on to, and it
S2: has some wheels underneath it and it rolls along. You're
S2: holding the handle by steering the power assisted wheels. It
S2: provides guidance, and it has a range of different sensors
S2: to help you with things like obstacle avoidance and that
S2: type of thing. So quite an interesting one. I'm not
S2: quite sure how I feel about it personally, and whether
S2: I would ever be willing to swap my dog guide
S2: for a robot device at this stage, I absolutely wouldn't. Um,
S2: but it's it's certainly an interesting concept, and there's been
S2: quite a bit of interest in it overseas.
S1: Yes, it's developed in the United States. I think they're
S1: intending it would be available in about a year's time
S1: in the United States. And I imagine about two years
S1: or so before we would see it. And I think
S1: it's about 1500 bucks us they're anticipating.
S2: Yes. That's right.
S1: Not too bad. No.
S2: And I think for a lot of people, you know,
S2: it does have the potential to perhaps give them a
S2: different type of mobility to, to what they're currently experiencing.
S2: The device itself, as I understand it, is sort of
S2: a rounded shape. So I picture it as being like
S2: a bucket with a telescopic handle off one side of it.
S2: But given that it's not available here, I haven't actually
S2: been able to get a hands on look at one
S2: of these.
S1: But you have looked at a prototype of a thing
S1: called a biped.
S2: Yes. The Noah product from biped II, which is based
S2: in Sweden, and this one is described as a harness.
S2: So it is a wearable device, and you have the
S2: sort of metal band of the harness goes around the
S2: back of your neck. And then there are two box
S2: like structures that sit against your shoulders, pointing forward. The
S2: batteries go into the part that goes around the back
S2: of your neck, and in the two structures you have
S2: sort of all of the smarts, including the cameras and sensors. Now,
S2: the idea with this one is that you wear the
S2: device and it does obstacle detection. It has some AI
S2: built into it, which is designed to help you find
S2: a way around obstacles. And when paired with your phone
S2: and used with a set of aftershocks bone conduction type headphones,
S2: it will also give you some spoken feedback, so it'll
S2: give you distances to obstacles. It also can do GPS navigation.
S2: So they've tried to make it sort of an all
S2: in one, rather than having a GPS device, a cane
S2: or a dog and a perhaps a pair of smart glasses,
S2: they've tried to sort of integrate all of those different
S2: tools into one device.
S1: What's interesting about this device, and also the glide, is
S1: that they're very much software dependent, of course. So once
S1: you buy the basic device, um, the hardware may not change,
S1: but the software will evolve over time.
S2: Yes. That's right. I mean, I suspect with the biped
S2: unit because it contains camera technology, you know, as lidar
S2: technology and those things develop. They may revise the hardware
S2: at different times to give it, you know, greater resolution
S2: and be able to feed more information to the eye
S2: in the back end, if you like. But yes, a
S2: lot of these things are very much software based.
S1: Is the biped far away from being available in Australia?
S2: I don't think so. Um, I believe that Vision Australia
S2: will be offering it. There's, um, some discussions and things
S2: ongoing at the moment, but I'm hopeful that we will
S2: be able to see that one fairly soon.
S1: I know you can't give me an exact price, but
S1: what sort of money are we talking about?
S2: I believe it's around the 7500 dollars mark. It's not
S2: a cheap piece of equipment, and it's something that I
S2: think you would have to be really fairly sure that
S2: it's going to suit your particular needs. O&M orientation mobility
S2: is a very individualized thing. You know, it'll be awesome
S2: for some people and for others, it definitely won't suit them.
S1: Lots of trialling will have to be available, I imagine,
S1: for expensive purchases.
S2: Yes, absolutely.
S1: You've been doing some work recently with your phone, your iPhone,
S1: using it to get some orientation or mobility tips. Where
S1: are you at with that?
S2: So there's a couple of things that I've been experimenting with,
S2: particularly with the update to iOS 18. The fact that
S2: some of the navigation modes or camera modes that you
S2: used to have to access through the magnifier app are
S2: now available on the rotor, so it becomes very easy
S2: to activate them on the fly. There's a couple of
S2: things that I've been experimenting with a few weeks ago.
S2: On a recent trip to Melbourne, we were staying in
S2: a hotel where we were about as far away from
S2: the lifts as it was possible to be, and it
S2: was one of those situations where the corridor had about
S2: 20 or 30 different twists and turns and changes of direction,
S2: and all of the parts of the corridor kind of
S2: felt the same. So in that instance, I used the
S2: text detection and the door detection features in the iPhone
S2: Pro models to be able to identify the door of
S2: my room and also be able to read the room numbers,
S2: because there's nothing more disconcerting than trying a door and
S2: discovering that it's not yours, and that you might be
S2: frightening the life out of the person on the other
S2: side of the door. That was actually very helpful. The
S2: other thing that I've been experimenting with a little bit
S2: is the people detection mode, which has been around for
S2: a while, but I've never really used it in any
S2: great detail, but it can be quite helpful if you're
S2: trying to, for example, follow someone, and also if you're
S2: getting onto a crowded bus or train. I don't know
S2: about other dog guide users, but mine will find me
S2: a seat, whether it's a vacant one or a or occupied,
S2: particularly if the occupant happens to be eating a pie
S2: or something like that. So being able to actually identify
S2: whether a seat is vacant before you put your hand
S2: out or go to sit down is pretty helpful. So
S2: I have been using some of these built in features
S2: over the last few weeks and found them to be
S2: quite helpful. I should stress that there is a bit
S2: of a limitation in that they don't all work on
S2: all models. Some of these features do require the LiDAR
S2: feature available in the Pro Series, iPhone 16 Pro, 15 Pro,
S2: 14 Pro, and so on in order to get the
S2: most out of them.
S1: Yes, I'm very interested in those ones and very convenient.
S1: Let's talk about now the meta Ray-Ban glasses and IRA.
S1: There's been some action there.
S2: Yes there has. So for a few weeks IRA have
S2: had in a sort of a closed beta operating where
S2: you could register for being able to access IRA through
S2: your meta smart glasses. So it gives you a essentially
S2: a hands free option, similar to perhaps what you get
S2: through things like the envision glasses or those that remember
S2: the original IRA glasses when they first came out. The
S2: implementation is not perfect at this stage. They are using
S2: the WhatsApp application to do the video calls. But on Monday,
S2: IRA opened that beta program up so that any IRA
S2: user can, um, if they have a set of meta
S2: smart glasses, they can access the IRA service through them.
S2: So when you update your IRA explorer app, there's now
S2: a customized call option. And one of the options you
S2: can select there is meta Ray-Ban glasses. They're very keen
S2: for people's feedback, and they're also encouraging people to lobby
S2: meta to open up their API, as it were, so
S2: that they can work directly with the IRA application.
S1: The name dolphin's been around a while.
S2: So dolphin is a British company and as you say,
S2: they've been around for a while. I can remember using Hal,
S2: which was their DOS screen reader back in the day,
S2: and I'm showing my age here. I know, but their
S2: supernova product has also been around for a while, and
S2: it is a predominantly, I guess, a screen enhancement program,
S2: although it does come in a few different flavors. So
S2: there is the magnifier only version. There is a version
S2: that is a magnifier with some speech functionality for reading documents,
S2: reading emails, that type of thing. And then they have
S2: a version which is a full magnifier and full screen reader.
S2: It is sort of, I suppose, a competitor product to
S2: zoom text and fusion. Very similar functionality. So it does
S2: your speech, your magnification. There is a USB version available,
S2: and it can also be paired with a number of
S2: different webcams and document cameras to provide magnification for printed
S2: documents and distance magnification, depending on the camera that you're using.
S1: It just runs in the windows environment.
S2: It is a windows application.
S1: Yes, it's had an update recently.
S2: Yes it has. So dolphin have on the 10th of
S2: October released version 23.03, which addresses some compatibility issues with
S2: the latest versions of Microsoft Office 365. Those of you
S2: that use office 365 would know that on a fairly
S2: regular basis, Microsoft release updates and sometimes they work well,
S2: and other times they sort of introduce accessibility challenges. There
S2: are the usual array of bug fixes and enhancements, and
S2: also some support for some new webcam and document camera devices.
S2: So those people who are already using a version of
S2: supernova 23, you should get that update automatically. So the
S2: next time you start up supernova, it should prompt you
S2: to install the update. Uh, of course, if you're running
S2: an earlier version of supernova, then you would need to
S2: sort of purchase an upgrade in order to get version 23.
S2: But once you do that, you would automatically be looking
S2: at 23.03.
S1: What's the best way to find out about supernova? If
S1: people are curious after hearing you talk about it.
S2: It is available through the Vision Store website. You can
S2: also download directly from dolphin and we'll put the link
S2: in the show notes. You can actually download a fully
S2: functional 30 day trial of supernova, so it's not a
S2: timed demo, um, in that it will work, you know,
S2: all day, every day for 30 days and give you
S2: an opportunity to give it a really good road test,
S2: as it were. Before you buy, it is slightly cheaper
S2: than Fusion and Zoomtext, and there are a number of
S2: different upgrade options available in terms of the software maintenance
S2: agreements as well.
S1: Dolphin supernova Before we go, a reminder you can find
S1: details of what we've been talking about in this and
S1: previous editions of the program from VA radio.org/talking tech. VA
S1: radio.org/talking tech and to right to the program.
S2: Damo Damo dot McMorrow m c m o r o
S2: w at Vision Australia.
S1: Org Damo dot McMorrow at Vision Australia. Org this has
S1: been talking tech with me has been Vision Australia's national
S1: access technology manager Damo McMorrow I'm Stephen Jolly. Stay safe.
S1: We'll talk more tech next week. See you.