Hi,
You could very well be right in that theory.
Robin
From: David Goldfield
Sent: Sunday, June 3, 2018 3:03 AM
To: blind-philly-comp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-philly-comp] Re: An Interesting Article About Security Cameras
from the Perspective of a Visually Impaired Consumer
Hi, Robin.
I'm using the Ryan voice from Acapella. While I don't use Eloquence as much as
I used to it is very understandable at very high rates of speed. I also prefer
to have my more human-sounding voices at a slower speech rate. Maybe this is
because it's not natural to hear something that sounds like a human speak at
faster than normal speech rates, whereas Eloquence doesn't sound totally human
to begin with. It could be that some of the more human-sounding voices start to
sound slurred or that syllables get clipped at fast speech rates.
David Goldfield, Assistive Technology Specialist WWW.David-Goldfield.Com
On 6/3/2018 2:36 AM, Robin Frost wrote:
Hi,
Which voice are you using? As an aside I find voices so interesting in terms
of which ones people like and have the easiest time understanding or at which
rates of speed one can best comprehend and interact with them.
For instance I can listen to Eloquence speech at a very high rate of speed as
I can the Samantha voice on iPhones but if I switch to the supposedly more
human sounding voices I am forced to slow their speed down markedly in order to
understand them as well. It truly is a fascinating thing indeed.
Oh my goodness that is funny I laughed out loud good thing I couldn’t wake
anyone up. That is so very funny. Years back and I can’t even remember which
mobile phone I had at the time whether it was the Nokia simbian based phone or
the early iPhones that would do the following. KYW News Radio whose jingle now
plays in my head. Anyway they used to send out text alerts of various things
and they were titled k y w alerts. with no spaces. So when the phone would read
them it would be kentucky walerts (laughs). Similarly a while back whenever
iPhone speech would see Al Green as the artist information playing on a radio
station it’d call him Alabama Green.
But my favorite example came from a friend who ran one of those telephone
reader services that read newspapers and I think might have been using DecTalk
but don’t quote me. Anyway it was reading out the time of Midnight Mass on
Christmas and it kept saying Midnight Massachusetts (laughs).
At least we laughed today so we’re a success.
And thank you again for the information about the Xfinity home offering it’s
always good to have options and examine the different ways each can be
interacted upon and how they present information in turn.
Take good care.
Robin
From: David Goldfield
Sent: Sunday, June 3, 2018 1:47 AM
To: blind-philly-comp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-philly-comp] Re: An Interesting Article About Security
Cameras from the Perspective of a Visually Impaired Consumer
Hi, Robin.
The phone-style keypad has no speech output, either confirming your arming
mode or other status. You would need to use the app to verify this info, as
well as the status of open doors, windows, etc.
Thanks for the info on ADT, btw, which I found very interesting. As a totally
irrelevant aside, my speech from Acapella often takes incredible liberties when
it comes to converting acronyms and other abbreviations and so all instances of
ADT were spoken as Atlantic Daylight Time. <grin>
David Goldfield, Assistive Technology Specialist WWW.David-Goldfield.Com
On 6/3/2018 1:25 AM, Robin Frost wrote:
Hi,
It does indeed. So do the keypads have any speech output I.E. once you set
the mode for instance to arm stay away or the like does it announce it? Does it
indicate if a door or window is open via speech?
In some ways it sounds similar to ADT but with some minor differences.
ADT’s app while a bit cluttered in nature is accessible and you can also set
rules bring up the live view of a camera and monitor system censors through it
too. Recordings from cameras are saved either to cloud or a dvr in your home
for an entire 30 day period before recycling so if something happened someone
could go back and retrieve the recording for you and as I said either save to
cloud or thumb drive for you. ADT keypads as well as talking key fob or more
accurately garage door opener sized device have speech output of modes as well.
My system is so huge that I’m not sure how easily it’d be for me to switch
with so much ADT equipment here but it is always interesting to find out about
other offerings. Here my system monitors for burglary of course carbon
monoxide, heat and fire as well. And alarms if sounded have spoken prompts with
them that are broadcast to any evil doers or residents in the premise's. And I
like you don’t mean to sound like an infomercial either as I’ve no vested
interest but since I asked about the topic I thought I’d share in case others
were curious as well.
Take good care.
Robin
From: David Goldfield
Sent: Sunday, June 3, 2018 1:16 AM
To: blind-philly-comp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-philly-comp] Re: An Interesting Article About Security
Cameras from the Perspective of a Visually Impaired Consumer
Hi, Robin.
My wife and I used to have ADT as our security provider. This was before
smartphones were all the rage and so I don't think they had any apps or cloud
storage connected to their services at that time. I'm assuming that ADT now
offers these capabilities and I am actually curious as to how accessible they
are.
I'll try to address your questions regarding Xfinity Home by explaining
what is offered. I will apologize in advance if the rest of this message sounds
like an Xfinity infomercial, as this is not my intent.
1. Like most of the security systems you will get a telephone-style keypad
which I am assuming most people will want by their front door. In addition to
the ten digits for entering your security code there are three buttons below
this keypad which, on my keypad, are Stay, Away and Night. Comcast offers a few
different keypads and I have only seen one of them, which is the one installed
at my home. On that particular keypad the keys are distinctive and the three
mode buttons below it, for Stay/Away/Night, are very tactile. The keys beep
when they are pressed.
2. You also get a separate device known as the touchscreen controller,
which provides the ability to fully control your system by changing codes,
adding additional security codes, etc. This device is very portable and can be
plugged in using any wall outlet. This device is currently not accessible if
you solely rely on speech output.
3. iOS and Android users can control the system by using the Xfinity Home
app. The app gives you similar functionality to the touchscreen controller. For
example, you can use the app to arm or disarm your alarm, activate or
deactivate motion sensors, browse through an activity log of all of the events
recorded by your security system and can even create rules. A rule might be
something like "arm my security system every night at 10:00 Pm or send me a
text message whenever my back door opens or closes. While we continue to always
improve accessibility I would say that the app is nearly 100% accessible. If
you have smart devices which are compatible with Xfinity Home you can use the
app to control those devices, as well. As an example, you could adjust the
temperature of your thermostat or lock your front door remotely. On iOS you can
even use your fingerprint to arm or disarm your system without the need to
enter your security code.
4. There is also a Web-based portal where you can control most of your
security system's settings via your Web browser. I don't believe that creating
and managing rules are offered using the Web interface but most other features
should be available.
If I remember correctly, the basic service comes with the main keypad, the
touchscreen controller, the ability to use the apps and the Web portal and I
think you also get a few sensors included as well, such as those you might want
on a door or window. One motion sensor might also be included but I would check
with the Xfinity Home Web site or one of their sales agents to be certain. 24/7
monitoring is also included but I don't think that a camera is included with
the basic package and, if this is true, it would be an additional cost. Again,
if you're ever curious about this I would check with Xfinity as there could be
any number of promotions or other discounts that I might not be aware of.
If you do purchase a camera you would be able to monitor what it is
detecting via the Web portal, the apps and even with X1 by using your voice
remote and giving it a voice command to display what your camera is seeing. As
you can imagine, this is a totally visual feature and so a totally blind person
would need sighted assistance to verify the nature of the picture.
For an additional ten dollars per month you can have your camera recording
what it sees and having these recordings sent to the cloud. You could use the
apps or the Web portal to browse the list of recordings. There is, however,
some degree of accessibility here. On the down side, the recordings are still
totally visual and the names of the files would, therefore, not be able to
provide any description of what had taken place. However, each recording, which
I believe lasts for around 45 seconds, is time stamped. Therefore, if you knew
that a specific incident occured at your house or in your backyard at 12:30 PM
yesterday, you could browse the files and locate the ones which were
timestamped at 12:30 and you could then share them. In iOS, you could activate
the typical share sheet for any of these files, giving you the options for
sharing them via email, your Dropbox or Onedrive account, text message, etc.
The recorded files are stored for a period of ten days.
I hope this information helps.
David Goldfield, Assistive Technology Specialist WWW.David-Goldfield.Com
On 6/1/2018 5:15 PM, Robin Frost wrote:
Hi,
This is very interesting to me. I have cameras through my ADT pulse
system and while I’m happy to have them I as a blind person can’t do much with
them at all. I can have people look at live views remotely but when it comes to
archiving video clips from them for the purposes of say documenting the fact
that a next-door neighbor takes advantage of one’s blindness by letting their
golden retriever run loose doing its business on your property or jumping at
you and potentially causing injury to you when you’re simply taking your trash
to the curb on your own property sorry I digress (smile). You can do little of
that archiving to thumb drive or cloud process on your own without sighted
assistance.
I’m curious what the xfinity home experience is like over all in terms of
keypads with speech output for alarm systems or archiving of video for instance
from its cameras if any light can be shed on that.
Take good care.
Robin
From: David Goldfield
Sent: Friday, June 1, 2018 10:58 AM
To: blind-philly-comp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-philly-comp] An Interesting Article About Security
Cameras from the Perspective of a Visually Impaired Consumer
Applevis recently published a blog post discussing the accessibility of
security cameras from the perspective of a visually impaired user. While the
reviewer is not discussing a home security solution such as the one which
Comcast offers this piece still makes for interesting reading. Since I started
using Xfinity Home a little over a year ago I have a greater appreciation for
how and why security systems are of tremendous benefit to visually impaired
consumers, including and especially when dealing with cameras. This is why the
accessibility of these services is so critical and is why I'm very pleased at
how accessible XH has become.
https://www.applevis.com/reviews/miscellaneous/blind-persons-guide-home-security-cameras
You are invited to visit the moderator's Web site at
WWW.DavidGoldfield.Info for additional resources and information about
assistive technology training services. To unsubscribe from this list, please
email blind-philly-comp-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the
subject line. To subscribe from another email address, send email to
blind-philly-comp-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word subscribe in the subject
line. To contact the list administrator, please email
blind-philly-comp-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
