Sight and Sound Technology Podcast

This episode comes to you from the exhibition floor of the 41st Annual CSUN Assistive Technology conference, in Anaheim, California.We catch up with Dave Williams from Dot Inc, Ron Dare from Eschenbach, Sile O'Modhrain from New Haptics and Jenny Axler from Selvas.

Welcome into a new season of podcast episodes from Sight and Sound Technology.RNIB Northern Ireland are once again holding their technology fair. This year, the location is the Foyle Arina, in Derry, and the event takes place on Wednesday 11th February.Stuart sits down with RNIB's Jackie Brown to find out all about it.

In this milestone 100th episode of our podcast, Stuart celebrates seven years of the show by reminiscing about its origins and dipping into the very first episode from September 2018. Then its time to welcome back friend of the show Vanessa Viger, Chief Marketing Officer at Envision. Vanessa provides an overview of the new Ally Solos smart glasses, discussing their affordability, lighter design, and key features. The Ally Solos Glasses are designed to look like normal, lightweight everyday frames. They feature a camera on the left arm and battery-powered, removable stems that offer a 10-hour battery life with swappable arms for all-day use. They will be available in medium/large sizes and three colour options, complete with a folding case.The glasses are offered at an early bird price of £380, normally around £532. This price includes a 1-year Ally Pro subscription worth around £200.They connect via Bluetooth to a phone and can function as a headset for music and calls. They utilize existing Ally profiles/personalities across devices and employ multiple AI models for different tasks, focusing on accuracy over speed for safety. Unlike the hardware-focused Envision glasses, the Ally Solos adopt a software platform approach. Envision provides customer support, while Solos handles fulfilment.These glasses are built with an accessibility-first approach, distinguishing them from general market products like Meta Ray-Bans. Key scenarios include reading menus, food packaging and signs, getting real-time descriptions of what’s around you, checking your calendar and even finding out what the weather forecast. They are also prescription and tinted lens compatible and aim to target a broader market, including the elderly, individuals with cognitive needs, and those seeking general convenience.  Ally and Ally Solos Glasses users have complete control over their privacy since all Envision products are GDPR compliant and you are opted out of data sharing by default.

Welcome back to the Sight and Sound Technology podcast, where our General Manager and Head of Operations James Everson joins Stuart to clarify recent price and licensing changes for Vispero products (Jaws, ZoomText, and Fusion).James and Stuart discuss how new subscriptions, updated SMAs, and upgrade paths affect customers, and stress the need for existing SMA holders to renew by October 31st.

With Sight Village Central now less than a week away, Stuart is joined by our Head of Sales and Marketing Stefanie Davies to unveil some special, limited-time offers, which are available from July 1st and do not require attendance at the Sight Village event. These promotions include: 10% off all Envision Edition glasses (Read, Home, and Pro editions). 20% off Kapsys phones, including the MiniVision 2 Plus and both models of the Smart Vision 3. 20% off Selvas products in our portfolio, including the BrailleSense 6, SensePlayer, and Braille eMotion, and, there's much more!

We're continuing our catch-up with old friends in advance of this year's Sight Village Central event, in Birmingham.Stuart is having a long overdue chat with Jenny axler from Selvas. Jenny and the team have had an incredibly busy year and have lots of news about some current and soon-to-be released features for the BrailleSense 6, including a new web browser, offering modern Chrome functionality for shopping, embedded media, and form filling, while preserving the familiar Braille Sense interface and streamlining keystrokes for easier use. There's a significant update coming to the word processor, offering improved reliability and advanced formatting like bullets, numbering, tables, and footnotes, making it a true productivity tool that integrates well with Word. Selvas have also developed a new Braille Practice application designed to help users practice Braille at various learning stages, providing feedback and supporting phased Braille learning . Jenny also highlights new features such as shortcuts for global hotkeys for Android apps to improve efficiency, a video search application for easier YouTube navigation, and a new podcast AI search powered by ChatGPT.Stuart also sits down with our good friend Vanessa Vigar, Chief Marketing Officer with Envision. Vanessa tells us about Ally, Envision's powerful AI app that recently rolled out publicly. Ally is unique in leveraging multiple language models, ensuring it selects the best AI for tasks from visual descriptions to document reading. A key feature is the customization of Ally's personality and communication style, allowing users to input preferences for a highly personalized assistant experience. Vanessa explains how Ally now provides improved print reading with OCR, offering detailed audio feedback during the scanning process before reading the document, and enabling users to ask for summaries, translations, or specific information.

Welcome to another episode of the Sight and Sound Technology podcast. We're gearing up for Sight Village Central, taking place this year on July 7th and 8th in Birmingham, and, on this, the first in a couple of episodes that you'll hear over the next week, we're unveiling some new and exciting technology that will be on our stand during the show.We're delighted to be joined by friend of the show Pierre Kegels, and his colleague Karst Hoogsteen, who are with Stuart to talk about Luna Glasses.Designed by Karst, who has retinitis pigmentosa, these inconspicuous smart glasses offer a life-changing solution for night blindness and low-light vision. They use a special camera and in-lens projectors to display brighter, colourized reality in real-time, boosting confidence without stigma.Then, it's another friend of the show, when CEO of Kapsys Aram Hekimian makes a welcome return. Aram is with us to introduce KapX, a new wearable device for orientation and obstacle avoidance. Ideal for those needing confidence in outdoor navigation, KapX uses a lightweight headset with a camera and a pocket-sized computing unit. Its on-board AI provides real-time environment analysis, offering orientation guidance via TTS or 3D sound, notifying users of points of interest like crossings, and crucially, detecting and helping avoid hidden obstacles (like low branches or parked trucks) even if not specifically chosen by the user.

Liam Geschwindt is the co-founder of TouchPulse, who are developing Navis, the first personal navigation companion for the visually impaired.

Stuart re-connects with Joe Said, from Tactile Engeneering, the people behind the Cadence multi-line Braille Tablet.

Stuart catches up with /Dave Williams, RNIB's Inclusive Design Ambassador, to learn about his work and the work of the Inclusive design team.