#106: Get off your FatBike and Glide!

Hello our favourite sight capitalists, and welcome to episode 112 of BGC. We are honoured to be joined by Mr David Renstrom who has kindly agreed to leave the comfort of his North Swedish igloo to chat about the newest craze everyone is talking about: Meta Smart Glasses! David takes us through the design and functions of the glasses, and even gives us a tour of his fridge. Are these the Christmas present you've been waiting for? Do you need to amend your letter to Santa? Stay tuned and find out. We do have to issue a health warning and say that the A.I. part of 'Meta Glasses' may not work in your location straight out of the box. This is mainly an issue in Europe and is due to very strict EU data protection laws. However, there is a workaround: You can subscribe to a VPN service which means you can tell the 'Meta View App' your location is in the USA or Canada and then the A.I. will work fine. See links below to VPN services, some of which have very good subscription offers for the next few weeks. It turns out that in between shows, Jan has also purchased these Meta glasses and is getting some "Looking cute and cool dad" comments from his daughter Rosalie. But is she trying to butter him up for a special request that only daughters can ask their dad!?! Sucker!!! We've got an email from Blind Gordon which Mohamed will be pleased about as he was very worried about the weather in Scotland. We are delighted to say Gordon is all good, but we'd suggest staying away from Inverness; as it's feckin' FREEZIN' there!! And now, for the most important bit: Would you like to be a contestant in the Annual BGC Christmas Quiz? It's on December 23rd and will be lots of fun – full of madness and mayhem! We may even have some special guests. Send us an email expressing your interest to [email protected]. Even if you just want to attend, and not take part in the quiz – let us know, and we’ll send you on the joining details. So, stick your shades on; strip down to your Christmas reindeer socks; pour yourself a glass of eggnog (yuck!) and settle in to listen to the number 1 podcast as rated by Christmas films: Blind Guys Chat - 7 out of 8 Reindeers prefer it to falling off the roof! Links for this show: Meta: https://www.meta.com/ie/smart-glasses/ VPNs: · SurfShark: https://surfshark.com/download/windows · ZoogVPN: https://zoogvpn.com/ · ExpressVPN: https://www.expressvpn.com/vpn-download/vpn-windows And don’t forget to email [email protected] if you want to join us for the BGC Christmas quiz! Support Blind Guys Chat by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/blind-guys-chatRead transcript

Hello, our lovely election canvassers and welcome to Episode 111. Did you manage to survive Storm Bert last weekend? And did you know the storm was named by our weather colleagues in The Netherlands? Lucky it wasn't called Storm 'Sjef' - Woof!! Mohammed Laachir is back with us again and it appears he has been on a kind of holiday since he was last on the show. Yes, he is just back from pilgrimage to Medina and Mecca, and managed to survive in 34 degree Celsius heat (92 point something Fahrenheit) by availing of a very clever piece of clothing. It's election time here in Ireland. Are you ready to vote on Friday November 29 (the day after we publish this episode)? Vote early and often as Óran exclaims!! And if you need information on accessible voting, visit here: https://www.electoralcommission.ie/accessible-voting/ Clodagh has a great email from Patty Murphy. It has 2 images, and Patty wants to know how an AI engine will describe them. So Óran decides to put Jan and Mo to a test and see if they can work out which one is using “Picture Smart AI for JAWS”, and which one is using the “Describe with Be My Eyes” function. A little tip: Don't forget if you want Picture Smart AI for JAWS to give you more detail of an image you can use the keystroke 'Shift + applications key' and then select "Picture Smart with JAWS. And you can even ask questions about the image after the description is complete. The results of our AI descriptions were interesting. Also, the pictures are interesting - one of them features a 1957 BMW Isetta which is a really cool car. (Clodagh was wrong – there were 3-wheel versions built. Also 2 people could fit in the front. The back was for stowage.) You can read more about the BMW Isetta: here: https://journal.classiccars.com/2024/03/30/pick-of-the-day-1957-bmw-isetta/ So, chuck away your voting cards, take off your shoes and kneel to pay homage to the only podcast worth listening to this side of a force 12 gale: Blind Guys Chat. 8 out of 10 hibernating squirrels prefer it to sleeping. • Accessible voting: https://www.electoralcommission.ie/accessible-voting/ • 1957 BMW Isetta: https://journal.classiccars.com/2024/03/30/pick-of-the-day-1957-bmw-isetta/ Support Blind Guys Chat by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/blind-guys-chatRead transcript

Hello our wobbly hospital trolleys, and welcome to Episode 110 of BGC. It's a welcome back to Óran, fresh from his travels to the nearby hospital, all of 5 minutes away. Yes, it seems Óran is maintaining his hobby of having near death experiences every few years, much to Clodagh’s distress. But anyway, all is good now and he is back steering the HMS BGC directly into a cliff! Poor Jan is in bed and on the tablets again as he can't believe the US presidential election result, but then again neither can Clodagh, Óran, or most of the world for that matter. Our guest this week is Fanny Bui. Fanny is here to chat about a fantastic blind and visually impaired event happening in Chemnitz, Germany next year. Chemnitz is the European Capital of Culture 2025. The organising team are blind people who live in Chemnitz who want to introduce you to their city. You can stay in a blind host family, who will guide from arrival to departure. You really don’t need to bring a sighted person if you don't want to – you know how pesky they can be! The program includes a sound and touch city tour, a visit to the museum of archaeology, a visit to the blind school and training centre. There is also an option of a small hike in the nearby forest, climbing, or tandem biking. You can also try ‘Showdown’ (we don’t know – it’s some kind of game), and the highlight of the weekend will be a concert organised by the ‘Low Vision Charts’. For more details visit: tinyurl.com/BGCchemnitz or email [email protected]. In TV Corner we are talking about two shows on Netflix: ‘The Lincoln Lawyer season 3’ and season 2 of ‘The Diplomat’. Check them out. Clodagh has an email from Laurent, who writes from Belgium asking about the pros and cons of travelling through Europe as a blind individual. If any of you lovely listeners would like to share your positive and negative European travel experiences, you know who to email – Ghostbu… no, [email protected]. It will help us plan our holidays for next year – keep the stories coming! So, pull off that oxygen mask, don't worry about your collapsed lung, and throw caution to the wind as you walk up the hospital corridor listening to BGC, forgetting that your rear end is fully exposed for all to admire!! Blind Guys Chat: 16 out of 20 saline drips prefer it to being in someone’s arm. Links for this episode: • Chemnitz, European Capital of Culture 2025: https://tinyurl.com/BGCchemnitz, or email [email protected]. • Email us about your European travel experiences, good, bad and ugly, to [email protected]. • The Access Card – for cheaper access to various venues when travelling in the UK and parts of the rest of the world: https://www.thenationalcareline.org/Lifestyle/AccessCard. Support Blind Guys Chat by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/blind-guys-chatRead transcript

Hello, our little Halloween horrors, or maybe that’s just the hosts?! We’re back again for a show with a slight twist, and we’re not talking spooky goings-on - or maybe we are, because, Óran, our producer in residence, is missing in action for the first time in the history of this podcast! Is he OK? You’ll have to listen to find out. Hector, our beloved HR Director, has been busy arranging a new temporary contract for Stuart. Yes, he’s returning, at least for this show, to help out Jan and one of our regular guest hosts, Mohammed Laachir, as they delve into topics including Jan’s upcoming trip to Dublin; Braille 200 celebrations; the Glide device at Sight Village London; ChatGPT’s new advanced voice mode; Stuart’s issues with the iOS 18 calendar; and of course, the weather! If that’s not enough to keep you from your trick or treating, we end the episode live from a central Dublin boozer, where Jan is on the hard stuff! So, ease up on the tricks and treat yourself to the Blind Guys Chat podcast, because you never know, you just might learn something! 8 out of 10 pumpkins prefer it to having their eyes gauged out. Support Blind Guys Chat by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/blind-guys-chatRead transcript

Hello, our little delivery drones, and welcome to episode 108. This week Jan and Óran welcome back Mohamed Laachair and invite him to sit into the comfortable and fluffy guest-host seat. We think he really likes it. We kick off with news of the new AI companion from JAWS which is currently available on the web: https://fscompanion.freedomscientific.com. This new feature will also become available directly from within JAWS 2025 (JAWS Key+spacebar+F1 to access it) and is a gold mine of information. You can drop your question about JAWS and some other Vispero products into the edit box and it will have a little think and then come back with an answer. Try it! Have you tried ElevenReader App? The ElevenLabs’ ElevenReader App lets you listen to any text content, with ElevenLabs voices. This expands your library of audio content to any article, PDF, ePub, newsletter, or any other text on your phone. Get more info here: https://elevenlabs.io/text-reader Do you remember Maura Moore-McCune? She’s the young woman we interviewed back in episode 105 (link here: https://tinyurl.com/BGC105) who is developing VIPMOD - Vision Impaired Person’s Moving Object. Well, she has just won a gold medal at the annual prestigious Eskom Expo for Young Scientists in South Africa. Students from 35 Expo Regions in South Africa compete against each other, and then compete against the best young scientists from around the world. Maura won gold in the biomedical and medical sciences category and was joint overall senior winner too. Congratulations Maura – we’re thrilled for you! Back to JAWS - Freedom Scientific now have an automatic language detection facility using AI. Mohamed tells us more about this fantastic feature which is available in JAWS 2025. Derry Lawlor lets us know about the cameras on the Meta Ray Ban Smart Glasses, and we have news of a possible contender to Meta Smart Glasses which are the Meta Orion Smart Glasses? Huh?! Read more about them here: https://about.fb.com/news/2024/09/introducing-orion-our-first-true-augmented-reality-glasses/ So, stop getting confused about the October weather, cool the jets on the Halloween costume shopping, and get ready to listen to the most informative podcast this side of a town hall meeting: Blind Guys Chat. 8 out of 10 AI companions prefer it to being artificial. Links in this podcast: • The new AI companion from JAWS - FS companion: https://fscompanion.freedomscientific.com • ElevenReader App: https://elevenlabs.io/blog/introducing-elevenlabs-reader-app and https://elevenlabs.io/text-reader • BGC ep 105 with Maura Moore-McCune: https://tinyurl.com/BGC105 • Project Orion: https://about.fb.com/news/2024/09/introducing-orion-our-first-true-augmented-reality-glasses/ Support Blind Guys Chat by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/blind-guys-chatRead transcript

Hello, our autumn leaves, and welcome to episode 107 of BGC. We begin this show with some interesting news from Be My Eyes and Meta. It appears that the Be My Eyes application will soon become available via Meta Ray Ban SmartGlasses. This means when calling a volunteer using the app, the volunteer will now see the image from your Meta specs. Is this a cool and clever collaboration? Will this be a game changer due to the reduced cost? We discuss! Have you downloaded and installed IOS 18? Are you as disappointed with this upgrade as Jan is? Let us know: [email protected]. Also, Jan has a question for experienced iPhone users and has no shame throwing our beloved listeners and part-time collaborators, Derry, Brian and Mohamed, under the bus in order to get the answer. Our guest this time is Rocio Casati. Rocio works as a language localisation specialist for Vispero’s products in Spain. She is also a classical pianist and loves all things Braille, and also guide dogs of course. The guys feel like they are in heaven with this conversation. We have news on the arrival of the new Glide mobility aid in the UK; a webinar on MS Teams is coming up in November; there’s Sharkvember with Vispero, and an assistive technology day being held by Sight and Sound in Technological University Dublin’s Grangegorman campus. So, forget about the floods and power-cuts for a little while, crack open that only-slightly-expired tin of hot chocolate, and chisel out a tablespoon for yourself. Kick the cat off the armchair and settle in for a listen to the number 1 podcast voted by the Strictly Come Dancing professional dancers: Blind Guys Chat! 8.2 out of 10 orchestras prefer it to playing music! Links mentioned in this podcast: Next big thing: https://www.freedomscientific.com/nextbigthing/ RayBan/Meta collaboration: https://mashable.com/article/meta-rayban-smart-glasses-be-my-eyes-accessibility Ray Ban Smart Glasses: https://www.ray-ban.com/ireland/ray-ban-meta-smart-glasses Glide: https://glidance.io/ Sight and Sound assistive technology event on November 9th: https://www.sightandsound.co.uk/event/assistive-technology-exhibition-ireland/ And don’t forget to send us your comments, questions, ideas, hopes and dreams: [email protected] Support Blind Guys Chat by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/blind-guys-chatRead transcript

Hello our lovely loyal listeners, and welcome to ep 106. We kick off this show with the latest hot topic in The Netherlands: FatBikes! Yes, it seems that Jan has imported 16,000 electric bikes to sell them and make his fortune. But they appear to be a little dodgy as they have big wide tyres and are as low slung as Sjef's harness. Jan's mother-in-law also has something to say about these bikes so hold on to your hats.   Most of our show is devoted to our interview with Amos Miller, the founder and CEO of Glidance. Amos is here to tell us all about the 'Glide', an innovative self-guided mobility device for blind and low vision people. Amos is a blind developer with a background in computer science and engineering, and among other things was part of the developing team at Microsoft who created Soundscape. Now he’s working on bringing this new mobility device to market and by all accounts, this could be a game-changer when it comes to moving around unassisted. Mohamed is also with us to share his experience of using the Glide at the recent NFB event. But will it do away with guide dogs? Let's find out...   Now that we are officially in Autumn, or Fall, as our US listeners would say, we have some suggestions for TV shows to while away these longer evenings. Óran is recommending the new season of ‘Only Murders in the Building’ on Disney+, along with ‘The Perfect Couple’, a new show on Netflix, and his returning favourite, ‘Slow Horses’ season 4 on Apple TV. Let us know what you’ve been watching – we’re dying to know! Email us on [email protected].   So, throw your electric bike on the charger. Mind the leaves as you enter your home and tune into the best podcast this side of a Mexican taco: Blind Guys Chat. 20 out of 20 Haitians living in Springfield Ohio prefer it to Trumpy MacGrumpy Trump! Links in this show: Glidance: https://glidance.io/about-us/ Only Murders in the Building: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11691774/ The Perfect Couple: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11514868/ Slow Horses: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5875444/   And of course, our email address: [email protected] Support Blind Guys Chat by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/blind-guys-chatRead transcript

Hello our favourite tech geniuses! We start with some good news. Yes, Mali, the Bernese Mountain dog who was missing for 2 weeks, has been rescued from a 61-metre-high cliff edge on an island off the coast of Donegal. She ran off during a storm but now she has been reunited with her humans and went home for a big dinner and a snooze - yaaaay!!   Óran has had enough of the terrible Irish summer and has decided to move to The Netherlands where it always seems to be warm. Clodagh has her patient face on. Meanwhile, we've got news on Seeing AI's object detector. (Maybe it'll help Óran find the sun?) And Jan is looking forward to IOS 18. Will Siri be any better...? We sure hope so, cos she’s pretty useless right now!   Our guest this week is a talented young woman named Maura Moore-McCune from County Meath in Ireland. Maura is here to tell us about a mobile app she is developing called Vision Impaired Person's Moving Object Detector (VIPMOD) which can detect nearby moving vehicles. This will be especially handy if you want to check it's safe to cross at a junction, or if you are not sure if you can hear an approaching electric vehicle. Maura was invited to present her work on VIPMOD at the ‘MIT AI & Education Summit’ in Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, where she won the top prize for Community Impact – congratulations Maura! If you would like to be a beta tester for this app, email: [email protected] with your details. Maura would be delighted to have you involved when beta testing starts.   Clodagh has news on some calendar dates worth noting, like Colour Blindness Awareness Day on September 6th, and a 24-hour inclusive design event on September 12th.   So, enjoy hanging out in Belfast while your cruise ship gets serviced, don't tell that Russian spy whale where you hide the chocolate, and instead make your way safely to the sunny side of the street while listening to Blind Guys Chat. 17 out of 20 electric scooters prefer it to being in stealth mode.   Links in this show: Email to become a beta tester for the VIPMOD app: [email protected] MIT App Inventor coding system: https://appinventor.mit.edu/ SciFest: https://scifest.ie/ CYTI at DCU: https://www.dcu.ie/ctyi Colour Blindness: http://www.colourblindnessawareness.org/ Inclusive Design event: https://inclusivedesign24.org/2024/ Support Blind Guys Chat by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/blind-guys-chatRead transcript

Hello our Bermuda hurricanes and welcome to a blowy episode. We begin this episode reminiscing of cars long gone. Do you remember the Renault 4 or the Citroen BX or even the older Citroen DS? Yes, they might have been rust buckets and as unreliable as summer in Ireland but, at least they were quirky and fun to drive. Speaking of quirky and unreliable things, have you watched ‘Clarkson's Farm’ on Amazon Prime? Give it a go. It has brought farmers to tears, not to mention the sheep!! Óran has a question for Jan and our listeners who have guide dogs. Have you ever found your doggy a little reluctant to put on their harness? Well Larry is becoming a little uncooperative when Óran wants him to work. Is Larry faking because there are no couches on his walk? Or is he showing signs of wanting to retire with his feet up, smoking a pipe and watching old reruns of Oprah on the TV? We discuss. We've got an email from Sarah in Brantford Ontario, Canada who is inviting BGC to come visit. Nora Nagle has been on to tell us that Donald Trumpy now has a 'Superstore' and if anyone knows what that is, please get in touch ([email protected]). And speaking of that muppet, apparently, he now has his own winery! The guys would rather push a Fiat 500 up a 35-degree mountain than buy any of that stuff. So, forget about Henry the hurricane for a while. Strip off your wind breaker, turn the volume up to 11, and get ready for the greatest podcast this side of an electric car parked at a petrol pump: Blind Guys Chat. 19 out of 20 grapes prefer it to being in a Trump wine bottle. Links: Clarkson's Farm promo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k9NMbQe0C4 Support Blind Guys Chat by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/blind-guys-chatRead transcript

Hello our fast and furious Olympians, and welcome to ep 103 of BGC. We have a full house this week as Jan is back from his 11th holiday of the year, and Mohammed Laachir is back with us again fresh from NFB in Florida, having enjoyed their all you can eat buffet.   Yes, Jan handed the car keys over to Tycho while he, Chantal and Princess Rosalie sat in the back seat of their lovely electric vehicle. After a 63-hour trip taking in the Norwegian fjords, St Paul's Cathedral and the Brandenburg Gate, they eventually arrived in Camp Nou, Barcelona’s famous stadium, where fistfuls of money changed hands in order to purchase a Barca t-shirt and a can of coke. Oh, and Princess Rosalie bought some rather expensive makeup in a big international cosmetics and skincare store, or at least that's what Jan said.   Mohammed has just returned from NFB 2024 where he was demonstrating the new Picture Smart AI with JAWS. This is a cool new feature built right into JAWS allowing a user to scan a picture and hear what its contents are. Fair play to Mo for helping with the development of this feature.   While he was at NFB, Mohammed took the opportunity to take his hoover for a walk. Ahem... sorry, we mean the new Glide guide dog thingy from Glidance. Will Mohammed be purchasing? Tune in to find out!   So, jump off your pommel horse with a perfect 10; stay away from the Olympic cauldron – it’s not a BBQ! Put down that shotput before your do yourself some damage, and get ready to listen to the best podcast in the world: Blind Guys Chat - 10 out of 15 boxing gloves prefer it to boxing.   Links for this show:   ·       National Federation of the Blind (NFB): https://nfb.org/ ·       NFB National Convention: https://nfb.org/get-involved/national-convention ·       Picture Smart AI with Jaws: https://www.freedomscientific.com/training/jaws/new-and-improved-features/ ·       Glide from Glidance: https://tinyurl.com/Glidance Support Blind Guys Chat by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/blind-guys-chatRead transcript