 Following on from the past couple of weeks VIDA Insights (Blind Tech – Part 1 and 2), this week I (Dave) am sharing my thoughts about what people with a vision impairment should be getting excited about in 2018.
As mentioned previously, the world’s largest trade show for technology, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), took place in Las Vegas from the 9 – 12 January 2018. This show used to showcase all of the major developments, new technologies and innovations, however, although it’s still a massive show, the larger players hold their own events throughout the year where they launch or demonstrate their latest products. Last week we explained what AI (Artificial Intelligence), VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented Reality) are and gave a few examples of how these technologies are being used. We saw, towards the end of 2017, some very clever devices come to the market that were specifically for people with a vision impairment such as Microsoft’s Seeing AI and the OrCam MyEye wearable artificial vision device. This year will see further developments in wearable technology for vision impaired people with this technology set to be able to provide accurate scene descriptions, read street signs and recognise people by using facial recognition. In addition, it is likely that these devices will allow you to read documents such as menus and identify products on a supermarket shelf. Samsung have bought themselves in to the heart of this technology party when they unveiled their updated ‘Relúmĭno’ device at the CES 2018 exhibition. Combining a Smart phone with a VR headset, Relúmĭno uses complex image processing algorithms to enhance someone’s vision using the power of AI combined with the convenience of VR. This is very much for enhancing someone’s vision so not particularly useful for someone with little or no sight but to have a tech giant such as Samsung creating these devices can only be a good thing. We’ll also see further advancements in the ‘Smart Hub’ or ‘Digital Assistants’ such as the Amazon Echo. With Microsoft and Apple releasing their version this year, the competition between these and Google is going to be very interesting. Early indication is that Amazon is already working on making their devices such as the Echo a mobile device you can use on the move. It is likely to work via a headset with microphone and behind the ear type headphone enabling the device to be used with no hands. If they combine this tech with a GPS system then this could open up a whole new navigation and information device for people with a vision impairment. Furthermore, having the likes of Amazon and Google competing for sales, the prices are likely to be competitive too! 2018 will see further developments in accessibility either through built-in speech engines or more likely through voice recognition. For people that have some useful vision, then the release of 8K and HDR televisions will mean a sharper picture with deeper colours and the blackest black yet. We already have a few TV’s that have accessible programme guides but they are few and far between. Sadly I personally don’t think that I’ll be driving a car in 2018, however, I will be keeping my own eye on the developments in this area. And I wonder if 2018 will see our parcels being delivered by drones?? If there is a particular device that you are hoping will be developed in 2018 then please get in touch with us and tell us what it is… we’ll be keen to follow developments with you. We’re always interested to know about other people’s experiences and thoughts. Please share these by commenting… Interested to learn more about VIDA Training? Read about our Training and Consultancy packages, specialising in Vision Impairment and Disability Awareness, Communication and Team Building or contact us for further information.
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 This VIDA Insight isn’t specifically blind or vision impairment related, however, we felt it gave an opportunity to talk about the technologies that are being used in the VI world and help you understand the technology that lies within.
As mentioned in last week’s Blind Tech – Part 1 VIDA Insight, we highlighted Apps such as Microsoft’s Seeing AI and how ‘Smart Hubs’ such as the Amazon Echo or Google Home are becoming household items, but do you know how they actually work? There are 3 particular types of technology that have been kicking around for a few years now but they are quickly becoming techie jargon that we’re all aware of and using in our vocabulary. The technology is also being found and used in loads of everyday items. They are AI, VR and AR. A definition of each of them is: AI – Artificial Intelligence AI has been around for many years but didn’t really develop until the 21st century. Basically AI is having the ability to create technology that allows computers and machines to function in an intelligent manner, accomplishing tasks by using algorithms to produce a correct and often accurate response. You’ll find AI in many electronic devices that we use but some examples of equipment that uses AI are: ‘Smart Hubs’ such as the Amazon Echo use AI. You ask, for example, “Alexa, what is the time?” and the device processes what you have said and then generates the answer “It’s 10:38pm”. Many websites use AI to understand where you browse, what you read and what you purchase. They then promote, advertise or recommend other websites, articles or items for you to buy based purely on your browsing history. AI is used massively in the gaming industry, using it to make game characters learn your behaviours and habits and using this information to enhance your gaming experience… And we have all heard of ‘Siri’, Apple’s digital assistant who is ready to help… “what day does 31 May 2078 fall on?”, “What’s the weather?” and “What am I doing today?” and Siri will answer all of them using AI! VR – Virtual Reality Virtual reality has been driven forward in the gaming industry over the past few years, with the major gaming manufacturers releasing VR headsets for use with some of their games. VR is a computer technology that generates realistic images, sounds and other sensations that simulate a user's physical presence in a virtual or imaginary environment. A person using virtual reality equipment, such as a VR headset, is able to move around the virtual environment and interact with virtual features or items. I can’t think of any proper ‘VI’ related examples but know that there is talk of producing a VR programme that will enable sighted people to experience having different sight conditions. It is unlikely that VR will be widely used for people with a vision impairment due to its use of immersing you in to a virtual world through sight. It might work for someone with some useful vision but, for people like me (Dave) with very little useful sight; it’ll be one of those things that we’ll miss out on. AR – Augmented Reality Augmented Reality is a relatively new technology that is being used in a wide range of situations and is developing fast. Unlike VR that puts the user in a virtual world; AR keeps the user in the ‘real’ world but uses technology to massively enhance the immediate surroundings. It is hard to really explain, so here are a couple of ways in which you may have seen or used AR. The App Pokémon Go is a great example of how AR works. It uses GPS technology to locate your position and then, using a camera, puts an overlay on what you’re looking at and adds characters and objects for you to interact with. For some of you car enthusiasts, some top end cars now have something called a HUD (heads up display). This is a technology that projects images in to your line of sight as if they are floating in front of you near the wind screen. Some HUD’s enable you to change what is displayed using eye movements such as winks whilst all the time not taking your eyes off of the road. And finally, Google’s self-driving car project and Tesla’s “autopilot” are the most exciting (from a vision impairment point of view) developments using AR technology. Modern cars have park assist, cruise control, brake assist, lane assist and many other gadgets that all use AR and AI so a fully autonomous vehicle isn’t too far away. We’re always interested to know about other people’s experiences and thoughts. Please share these by commenting… Interested to learn more about VIDA Training? Read about our Training and Consultancy packages, specialising in Vision Impairment and Disability Awareness, Communication and Team Building or contact us for further information.  With the world’s biggest consumer electronics show (CES) being held in Las Vegas earlier this month, we thought that we would do a triple for January and, over the next three weeks write VIDA Insights covering the best vision impairment friendly tech of 2017 and what we can look forward to in 2018 - there’s so much to say on this latter one we’ve split it over 2 posts.
This week is all about 2017 and I (Dave) have picked out what I considered to be the highlights for the year. In the following 2 weeks I’ll be sharing my thoughts about what to expect from 2018… So what did 2017 bring… my picks, in no particular order, are: ‘Be My Eyes’ finally released their app for Android devices (the iOS App has been available for a while now), increasing the support network signed up to help people with a vision impairment using their very clever video link technology. I (Dave) tested this last year, getting video linked to a guy from Holland who helped me find something from my kitchen cupboard. Friends and I, whilst out at our local Indian restaurant, used the app to get help with reading the bill, however, the light in the restaurant was too dim for them to see the bill correctly on this occasion. It certainly has a place in my phone for emergencies and an app that everyone should have whether as a user or sighted helper! In December Virgin Atlantic ‘flew’ in to the lead and launched their new in-flight entertainment (IEF) system specifically designed for their vision impaired passengers. It is a portable device, based on an iPad that includes speech driven, easy to navigate controls and menus and access to audio described content. We saw the release of the second generation of the Amazon Echo with a new affordable price tag. This, along with its rival the Google Home, has made having a ‘Smart Hub or ‘Digital Assistant’ (I’m not sure what the correct term is for these devices yet) a standard item of equipment in most households (I got one from Santa!). Later this year we’re expecting to see the release of Microsoft’s Invoke that will use Cortana and Apple’s HomePod using Siri to join the dance floor but, as far as I’m concerned, they’re going to be too late to the party! However, the biggest and, in my opinion, best advancement in 2017 was the release of Microsoft’s Seeing AI app for iOS devices. Seeing AI came to the UK in early December with the version 2 update following just a week later making this an app with multiple functions (or channels as they are called within the app) designed specifically for vision impaired users. The app enables both document and handwriting reading capability, face recognition, product recognition (using bar codes), scene preview, currency/note preview and a light sensor. Sadly, due to having an old iPhone 5S, I don’t get access to the currency/note preview and the product recognition channels as these require a higher camera resolution such as the ones found in the iPhone 6 or later. This app has rivalled (although they don’t admit it) the OrCam MyEye device not only because of its range of channels, but the fact that it is completely FREE!!! There are many other improvements and updates to access technology software, devices and products that are improving the lives for people living with a vision impairment on a daily basis and I thank all the manufacturers for their ongoing developments and improvements. If you have a different opinion and want to challenge my list or add something else, then please get in touch with us by commenting on this blog Interested to learn more about VIDA Training? Read about our Training and Consultancy packages, specialising in Vision Impairment and Disability Awareness, Communication and Team Building or contact us for further information.  I’m (Dave) writing this blog at the end of the 3rd day of 2018. With the USA suffering with temperatures of -37 degrees and some states already having more snow fall in December than they usually get across a normal winter season, I thought that I would share my thoughts on the delicious white stuff…
I thought that we were set for some snow in early December when temperatures here (Surrey, UK) went to -7 degrees but nothing came… then, just before and after Christmas, parts of north England and Scotland got some decent snow covering but all we got was sleet and rain. Although the ground is sodden from the recent rain, I’m hopeful, in the next month or so, that we’ll get some snow, and not that wet snow, proper fluffy thick snow that you can make snowmen (or should that be snowpeople nowadays?) and snowballs with! Although unable to see much nowadays, I’ve great memories of playing in the snow as a kid. Back in my home village (Langley, near Maidstone for anyone that knows it) in the 80s we seemed to have snow every year. I particularly remember the snow we had in the 1986/7 winter when the village was cut off due to 8ft snowdrifts covering all of the roads in and out of the village. There are photos of us as kids standing on the tops of drifts which were covering cars and hedges and of a bungalow that had icicles that fell from the gutter to the floor. At one particular point we could see in to the upstairs of the local pub!! I love (and miss) the picturesque scenes as the layers of snow build. Its softness as it falls is unlike anything else and the crunch you get when walking on freshly laid snow can only put a smile on your face. I particularly like how peaceful everywhere goes after snowfall and the way sound is muffled due to the hard surfaces being covered with natural insulation. And isn’t it amazing how people seem to talk to each other more when we have snow?? However, enough reminiscing… as much as I want it to snow, I know that, this time with little vision and no Errol to guide me, a thick layer of snow is likely to be a massive hindrance to my mobility. Many vision impaired people call snow ‘Blind person’s fog’; the reason being that snow takes away all of the tactile surfaces and references similar to how fog reduces what a sighted person can see. My white stick (long cane if being correct) is pretty much useless in snow so I’ll have to adopt a different sweeping technique or maybe use 2 canes as ski poles!! In addition to the problems with getting around, I also really struggle, particularly during daylight hours, with the glare that snow produces. I’ll definitely have my polarised sunglasses on if I get the opportunity to get out in some snow this year!! So as much as I want the snow to come this year, maybe it would be nice for it to come on a Friday evening, enable us to play and build snowpeople for a day or two and then to go and allow life to continue as usual on Monday morning. Vicky – It struck me whilst reading Dave’s post, how sensory weather is – the sound and feel of rain, snow, wind and even sun. On another note I completely agree with the last part Dave – as I now need to drive my car to work every day – the thought of snow during the week is just a pain. However I do have some great memories of when my kids were little (and I only worked locally part-time) spending time with them on our great ski slopes (ok only the local park) with loads of other people from their local school tobogganing and sledging – with some kids even attempting snow boarding. We also used to go out for walks in the evening dragging the kids along on sledges – we ruined a few plastic sledges that way!! Now my kids are older, I’m sure they’d appreciate snow during the week for a few days off school a and college – but my request is with Dave for snow at the weekend only please!! We’re always interested to know about other people’s experiences and thoughts. Please share these by commenting… Interested to learn more about VIDA Training? Read about our Training and Consultancy packages, specialising in Vision Impairment and Disability Awareness, Communication and Team Building or contact us for further information.  World Braille day is celebrated on the 4th of January as this is the birthday of Louis Braille who published the system in 1829. It wasn’t until 1854, through the overwhelming insistence of blind pupils, that Braille’s system was implemented in the Royal Institute.
The following information is adapted from the Royal Blind website www.royalblind.org Braille is a tactile reading and writing system used by some blind and visually impaired people who cannot access print materials. Raised dots represent the letters of the print alphabet and includes symbols to represent punctuation, mathematics and scientific characters, music, computer notation and foreign languages. Contrary to popular opinion Braille is not a language. It is a code by which all languages may be written and read. Braille symbols are formed within units of space known as Braille cells. A full Braille cell consists of six raised dots arranged in two parallel vertical columns of three dots (like the number 6 on a dice). Whilst every letter of every word can be expressed in Braille (referred to as uncontracted Braille) there is also contracted Braille where cells are used individually or in combination with others to form different contractions or whole words. These short cuts reduce the volume of paper needed for reproducing books in Braille and make reading faster. Just as printed materials can be produced with paper, pencil, typewriter or printer, Braille can also be written in several ways. Embossed Braille is usually produced using a Perkins Brailler. Unlike a typewriter which has more than 50 keys, the Perkins Brailler has only six keys and a space bar. These keys are numbered to correspond with the six dots of a Braille cell. Since most Braille cells contain more than a single dot, all or any of the Brailler keys can be pushed at the same time. Computers provide and continue to expand additional avenues of literacy for Braille users. Software programs and portable electronic Braille note takers allow users to save and edit their writing, have it displayed back to them either audibly or tactually and produce a hard copy via a desktop computer-driven Braille embosser. There’s an interesting article about a project that has been launched to save an intricate Braille globe invented in Queensland in the 1950s by Richard Frank Tunley's which opened up the map of the world to blind and vision-impaired children allowing them to "understand the place of our planet, understand the size and shape of the countries and oceans, and use Braille to help their way around it. The globe is made of wood and aluminium with Braille letters punched into the aluminium, and includes several accompanying plates providing contextual information and instructions on how to use the globe. The full article is via the following link - http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-16/rare-1950s-braille-globe-designed-in-queensland-to-be-digitised/9047956 Just to add a word of warning though - Please be aware that whilst braille is invaluable to the people that use it, not every blind person reads braille. We often talk on our training of the time Dave and I attended a conference and were handed some material for the day. We got to our exhibition stand and I opened the pack only to comment ‘oh well this is of no use to either of us!’ – yes that’s right it was all in Braille which neither Dave nor I read! Much nicer, was when we went to the Sight Village London exhibition and Dave was asked whether he would like the guide in Braille (rather than just assuming). In fact, Dave’s preference would always be electronic for these things, but if available, he’ll usually have checked details online before attending anyway! We’re always interested to know about other people’s experiences and thoughts. Please share these by commenting… Interested to learn more about VIDA Training? Read about our Training and Consultancy packages, specialising in Vision Impairment and Disability Awareness, Communication and Team Building or contact us for further information. |
Our VIDA Insights...Following our experiences from delivering our Vision Impairment Awareness training days over the past couple of years, we know that there’s loads more that we could talk about and examples we could have shared. Whilst these won’t be a substitute for our training, they will give you an insight (hence the name!) into our thoughts, observations and experiences from each of our perspectives - Dave’s living with sight loss and Vicky’s from being a sighted person and working alongside and supporting people who have sight loss. Archives
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