Cork Exchange Club
Date: 13th Jan 2023
Participants: 13
We opened with a celebration of the first lady with a guide dog to receive
the Golden Globe award. Her namesake, Jackie identified closely with the
winner.
Jackie has read an astonishing 16 books since the beginning of January!
Ger needed help with the Voice Control in Audible. This is not to be confused
with the screen reader, Talkback or Voiceover, but is a tool of the Audible
app that speaks out any highlighted piece of text on the screen. In android,
the symbol of a little man appears on the bottom right of the screen to show
that the tool is turned on. A diagonal swipe over the desired piece of text
highlights it and the app starts speaking that text immediately.
Helen had a great experience with VI in Cork in which she was shown various
pieces of technology and visual aids by VI staff that encouraged her to
manage her gradually disappearing vision.
Martin is hunting for a small grill device. The group felt that the Air Frier
is ideal as anything can be cooked with it. Many models come with a built-in
Grill that would allow what Martin is seeking.
Jackie circulated information during the week that illustrated the COSORI
smart air frier .
Type the following into a Google search to reach a useful discussion of this
device:
"COSORI" Smart Air Fryer Oven Dual Blaze 6.4L,
The actual link is too long to include here.
Ken told of a new feature of "Be My eyes" in which users can form a family
group of close friends who have agreed to be called upon to give help with
visual problems". This should relieve concerns about strangers accidentally
encountering private or confidential material during a call with the public
Be My Eyes team. The user setting up the group chooses the members and
invites each individual to join the group if willing.
Seeing AI is still very popular but some embers like to use Envision AI
instead.
The popular Voice dream Reader gives access to the Voice dream scanner from
within the app. Originally, the Voice dream set of reader and scanner came as
one package that could be purchased outright. New users must pay a monthly
subscription to gain access to these apps.
Cearbhall told of the failure of the Scottish version of Soundscape to tell
that an important junction had been reached on at least two occasions. This
is most unusual and needs to be tracked in case it is going to become a
problem. The meeting noted that there are two versions of Soundscape i.e. the
Scottish Tech Army version and the Soundscape Community app. Both claim to be
identical with the original Microsoft Soundscape app with recent additions.
Soundscape is not available for Android users but Lazarillo is available and
is very similar to Soundscape .
Chris wondered if Soundscape would allow its markers to be transferred to a
later app. Nobody had an answer so he will have to investigate this question
and report.
Adrian discovered a breakthrough in automatic personal assistance that is a
sign of the future of electronics. He sends the following video description
that is available on YouTube:
The Rabbit R1, priced at $199, is a groundbreaking Rabbit R1 device that
revolutionizes our interaction with technology. Unlike traditional gadgets,
it's powered by a natural-language operating system and is designed to
replace the need for multiple apps. The core of the R1 is its "Large Action
Model," an AI system that learns user interactions with apps and web
interfaces, allowing it to perform tasks on a cloud platform called the
"Rabbit hole."
It is a small hand-held device that sits in the parm of the hand and is
operated by voice commands with limited touch gestures for confirmation of
decisions. Unfortunately, the need for touch communication makes this device
unusable by people with a severe visual impairment.
The meeting ended
All the best,
Cearbhall
m +353 (0)833323487 e: cearbhall.omeadhra@xxxxxxx
